Dream Content, Dream Recurrence and Well-Being: A Replication with a Younger Sample
Antonio Zadra, Shannon A. O'Brien, D. C. Donderi
Imagination, Cognition and Personality June 1, 1998 DOI: 10.2190/llxl-d4db-9cp5-brgt (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 52 |
| Population | Recurrent, past-recurrent, and nonrecurrent dreamers aged 18 to 21 |
| Duration | 14-day sample of remembered dreams |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | Recurrent dreamers scored lower on psychological well-being and reported more negative dream content than past-recurrent and nonrecurrent dreamers. |
Abstract
A multivariate comparison was made among fifty-two recurrent, past-recurrent, and nonrecurrent dreamers aged eighteen to twenty-one. The participants completed measures of well-being and collected a fourteen-day sample of their own remembered dreams. Multivariate analysis showed that recurrent dreamers scored low on psychological well-being and reported more negative dream content. As was true in an earlier study, a single psychometric dimension, which we call psychological well-being, discriminated between the recurrent dream group and the other two groups over the entire set of well-being and dream content variables. As was true in two previous studies, dream archetypality was negatively correlated with a measure of neuroticism. We conclude that in both late teenagers and older adults, recurrent dreams occur in times of stress, are accompanied by negative dream content, and are associated with a deficit in psychological well-being.