This research is to understand the perception of the meaning of life and differences of background variables affecting the perception among the junior high schoolers in Taichung city. The study applied the questionnaire to collect data. Samples are 7th-, 8th- and 9th -graders who are currently studying in public junior high schools in Taichung city. In addition, the “Scale of Holistic Life Meaning (SHLM)” was used to determine the extent of their perception toward the meaning of life. According to stratified random sampling, there were 1200 copies of questionnaires distributed to various schools and 1113 valid copies for analysis. The data analyses adopted descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, LSD and Scheffe5s post hoc analyses if a significance was found so that the differences among groups could be understood. There were several findings as follows: 1. Junior high school students’ in Taichung City had a moderate high level of perception toward the meaning of life. 2. The ranking of the holistic life meaning among Taichung’s junior high schoolers was sequentially listed below: "Life Liberty", "Value of Life", and "Spiritual Upgrading". 3. Under the consideration of seven background variables, junior high schoolers perception of the meaning of life reached significant differences in terms of gender, grade, religion, birth order, family social economic status, and family type, and school district. Finally, several recommendations were provided for teachers and future research. |