Rumble, Morgan, authorEakman, Aaron, advisorAtler, Karen, committee memberSteger, Michael, committee member2007-01-032007-01-032014http://hdl.handle.net/10217/82481The presence of meaning in one's life is recognized to be important for fostering health and well-being. Humans create meaning through occupation, but whether there are similarities across the components of meaning for individuals remains unanswered. Meaning is revealed through language and narrative, which necessitates a qualitative, interpretive approach to its study (Polkinghorne, 1988). Qualitative research has supplied rich data about the meaning of occupation for various cultures, populations, and activities, but to-date, there has not been a systematic review to identify if general patterns of meaning and experience exist in occupation. Following a framework synthesis approach to qualitative meta-synthesis, the current exploratory study examined positive subjective experiences associated with occupation to uncover elements of the meaning of occupation. Two higher-order themes were discovered, social meaning and selfhood, that contained multiple themes as well as four additional themes including satisfaction, pleasure/enjoyment, stimulating, and health and well-being. Complex interconnections between themes also arose and are discussed.born digitalmasters thesesengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.Journal of Occupational Sciencequalitative studyoccupationmetasynthesismeaningText