Abstract
Undergraduate study is a demanding developmental stage, and psychological distress is common among university students in Pakistan. However, the personal resources that protect against it remain understudied in this population. This study examined how grit, the presence of meaning, and the search for meaning relate to psychological distress among undergraduate university students and tested whether the presence and search for meaning mediate the association between grit and distress. A sample of 250 undergraduate students completed the Short Grit Scale, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlations in SPSS and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in Smart PLS, with 5,000 bootstrap subsamples. Grit was positively related to the presence of meaning and negatively related to both the search for meaning and distress; the presence of meaning was negatively related to distress, whereas the search for meaning was positively related to distress. In the structural model, grit explained 21.9% of the variance in the presence of meaning and 11.0% in the search for meaning; together with the two meaning dimensions, it explained 43.2% of the variance in psychological distress. Both presence and search for meaning significantly and partially mediated the grit–distress relationship, and the direct effect of grit remained significant. Findings suggest that grit lowers distress both directly and by fostering present meaning while reducing fruitless searching, and point to the value of culturally responsive campus counseling.