Life Meaningfulness, Law Abidance, and Social Risk Among Hong Kong Youth

There is debate over whether following state laws helps young people, especially those at risk for social exclusion, find meaning in their lives. The help rests on existentialist and terror management theories, which hold that maintaining security, especially when it is under risk, is meaningful to life. However, alternative views that state law is authoritarian, illiberal, oppressive, and therefore useless cast doubt on this help. Instead, the views hold that social risk is tolerable and thus meaningful. To clarify the debate, this study examined data from a random-sample survey of 2,175 Chinese youths in Hong Kong. Findings show that agreement to the law contributes to life meaningfulness, particularly by reducing the adverse effects of social risk awareness. Moreover, a quadratic effect emerged in that the contribution rose with the agreement. These findings suggest the value of encouraging law abidance and preventing social risk based on existentialist and terror management theories to increase youth's life meaningfulness.