This study analyzed (1) the relationship among the will to meaning, flow, and psychological well-being in Cross-strait college students; (2) the mediating effects of flow on the relationship between the will to meaning and psychological well-being; and (3) the moderating effects of Cross-strait college students. The conclusions of this study can serve as a reference in the practice and study of improving the will to meaning, flow, and psychological well-being among Cross-strait college students.

According to the literature, the will to meaning influences psychological well-being and flow, which also affects psychological well-being. Therefore, the following three hypotheses were proposed:

H1: The will to meaning and psychological well-being would be positively correlated in Cross-strait college students.

H2: The will to meaning and flow would be positively correlated in Cross-strait college students.

H3: Flow and psychological well-being would be positively correlated in Cross-strait college students.

The analysis of the literature also indicated that flow plays a mediating role in the relationship between the will to meaning and psychological well-being in Cross-strait college students because, according to the core tenet of logotherapy, people can freely choose the meaning of their life, and people are driven by the will to meaning. The meaning of life comprises the pursuit of meaning. Therefore, people fully devote themselves to their pursued goal, which may concern academics, a career, family, or the committed pursuit of anything that improves their spirits. Regardless of the nature of the goal, it psychologically produces a peak or optimal experience; this is the perception of flow, and the will to meaning can advance the perception of flow. When in a state of heightened flow, an individual is fully engaged in an activity or work and is likely to feel a sense of accomplishment. This is consistent with the perception of psychological well-being, which is based on the theory of eudaimonia. This indicates that flow can increase the perception of psychological well-being. Therefore, H4 was proposed as follows: Flow would have a mediating effect on the relationship between the will to meaning and psychological well-being in Cross-strait college students.

Some related studies have indicated that differences in politics, economics, education, cultural awareness, ideas, and value orientation have produced disparate social and cultural environments on each side of the Taiwan Strait. Therefore, Cross-strait college students perceptions of the will to meaning, flow, and psychological well-being may also contrast. Therefore, H5 was proposed as follows: The relationships among the will to meaning, flow, and psychological well-being in Cross-strait college students would have moderating effects.

The hypotheses were verified using the following measures:

1. Research participants. Cross-strait college students were surveyed using paper-based questionnaires. In total, 1401 questionnaires were collected—701 and 700 questionnaires from Cross-strait respondents, respectively. A total of 972 (69.4%) responses were from female and 429 (30.6%) were from male students.

2. Research tools. The tools used in this study were the Taiwan College Students’ Sense of Life Meaning Scale by Wu et al. (2015), the flow domain of the Positive Emotion Scale for College Students by Hou et al. (2012), and the Psychological Well-Being Scale for College Students in Taiwan by Wu et al. (2015). The three scales have theoretical bases and favorable reliability and validity. All three scales were pretested on Taiwanese university students only; thus, we resampled and pretested the scales with Cross-strait college students. Confirmatory factor analysis was also conducted on samples of Cross-strait college students (200 each; N = 400) for pretesting; the results indicated that the instruments had an acceptable overall model fit, preliminary fit criteria, and fit of internal structure model.

3. Hypothesis models and data analysis. On the basis of the literature review, mediating and multigroup hypothesis models were proposed. The mediating model verified whether the will to meaning influenced psychological well-being through flow among Cross-strait college students. On the basis of the mediating effects model, the multigroup analysis compared the Crossstrait college students to verify whether the three paths, namely will to meaning–flow, flow–psychological well-being, and will to meaning–psychological well-being, had moderating effects. The hypothetical models of the mediating and multigroup models were initially analyzed using AMOS 24.0, but we determined that the multivariate value shows that the variables were not normally distributed (t = 42.819, p < .001). Therefore, in consideration of the extent of variations, we replaced AMOS 24.0 with Smart PLS 3.0 because it uses partial least squares, the smallest flat method of analysis.

First, the responses to the questionnaires were first for common method variance through an unmeasured latent method construct. No significant common method variance was detected. Second, in the mediating and model analyses, according to the propositions of Baron and Kenny (1986), the prerequisites of the mediating effects were as follows: (1) the independent variable can explain the dependent variable (i.e., will to meaning affects psychological well-being); (2) the independent variable can explain the mediating variable (i.e., will to meaning affects flow); and (3) the mediating variable can explain the dependent variable (i.e., flow affects psychological well-being). The mediation model was analyzed only after these three conditions were satisfied. Having confirmed that all three conditions were met, we examined the mediating model.

In terms of model fit for mediation, the factor loading, composite reliability, average variance extracted, and discriminant validity all met the criteria and demonstrated the appropriateness of the measurement (outer) model. Second, the collinearity, R2, f 2, and Q2 all conformed to the standard inner mode, meaning that the structural pattern was also appropriate. Positive correlations were determined between the will to meaning and psychological well-being, will to meaning and flow, and flow and psychological well-being among the Cross-strait college students; thus, H1, H2, and H3 were supported.

Third, variance accounted for (VAF), which is the indirect effect divided by total effect, of the mediating effects was 47.30%. Hair et al. (2016) proposed that a VAF of > 80%, 20%–80%, and < 20% indicate full mediation, partial mediation, and no mediation, respectively. According to this standard, flow partially mediated the relationship between the will to meaning and psychological well-being and had statistical power. Therefore, H4 was supported.

Fourth, the multigroup model analysis results indicated that the students’ locations had no moderating effect on the flow→psychological well-being and will to meaning–psychological well-being paths but did have a moderating effect on the will to meaning–flow path. The path coefficients were 0.683 for the Mainland China students and 0.611 for the Taiwanese students, indicating that the will to meaning and flow had a significantly stronger correlation among the Mainland China students than among the Taiwanese students. As such, H5, which predicted moderating effects on the relationships among the will to meaning, flow, and psychological well-being in Cross-strait college students, was partially supported.

According to the analysis results, the following four suggestions are proposed: (1) university students’ will to meaning should be increased; (2) university students should improve their own flow; (3) the mediating factors between the will to meaning and psychological well-being should be reexamined; and (4) future studies should investigate moderating factors between cross-strait college students in greater depth.