[1]
;
Privado, Jesús
[2]
;
Guillén, Verónica
[1]
;
Tormo-Irun, Maria Pilar
[3]
Valencia, España
Madrid, España
Valencia, España
Abstract One factor that has been shown to mediate and protect against psychopathology is the ability to engage in meaning making in adverse situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, the models that have attempted to explain the relationship between traumatic, stressful events’ meaning and clinical symptoms have been conducted in a piecemeal fashion. The objective of this study is to analyze which model (two-pathway model vs three-pathway model) has a better fit in explaining the association between the violation of global meaning and clinical symptoms such as somatization, anxiety, and depression in participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sample consisted of N = 1106 adults. The results suggest that the violation of schemas affects depression and anxiety symptoms through three pathways: (a) Path one, directly, schema violation explains clinical symptoms; (b) Path two, indirectly, schema violation explains clinical symptoms through the search for meaning and negative effect; and (c) Path three, the presence of meaning explains positive affect and buffers clinical symptoms. The three-pathway model explains 90% of the variance in clinical symptoms. The three-pathway model has clinical implications for the assessment, prevention, and treatment of people who are coping with unforeseen negative situations.