Fegg Martin J, Kramer Mechtild, Bausewein Claudia, Borasio Gian D
Interdisciplinary Center for Palliative Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Marchioninistrasse 15, 81371 Munich, Germany.
Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2007 Nov 22;5:59. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-5-59.
The construct "meaning-in-life" (MiL) has recently raised the interest of clinicians working in psycho-oncology and end-of-life care and has become a topic of scientific investigation. Difficulties regarding the measurement of MiL are related to the various theoretical and conceptual approaches and its inter-individual variability. Therefore the "Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation" (SMiLE), an individualized instrument for the assessment of MiL, was developed. The aim of this study was to evaluate MiL in a representative sample of the German population.
In the SMiLE, the respondents first indicate a minimum of three and maximum of seven areas which provide meaning to their life before rating their current level of importance and satisfaction of each area. Indices of total weighting (IoW, range 20-100), total satisfaction (IoS, range 0-100), and total weighted satisfaction (IoWS, range 0-100) are calculated.
In July 2005, 1,004 Germans were randomly selected and interviewed (inclusion rate, 85.3%). 3,521 areas of MiL were listed and assigned to 13 a-posteriori categories. The mean IoS was 81.9 +/- 15.1, the mean IoW was 84.6 +/- 11.9, and the mean IoWS was 82.9 +/- 14.8. In youth (16-19 y/o), "friends" were most important for MiL, in young adulthood (20-29 y/o) "partnership", in middle adulthood (30-39 y/o) "work", during retirement (60-69 y/o) "health" and "altruism", and in advanced age (70 y/o and more) "spirituality/religion" and "nature experience/animals".
This study is a first nationwide survey on individual MiL in a randomly selected, representative sample. The MiL areas of the age stages seem to correspond with Erikson's stages of psychosocial development.
“生活意义”（MiL）这一概念最近引起了从事心理肿瘤学和临终关怀工作的临床医生的关注，并已成为科学研究的一个课题。生活意义测量方面的困难与各种理论和概念方法及其个体间差异有关。因此，开发了“生活意义评估量表”（SMiLE），这是一种用于评估生活意义的个体化工具。本研究的目的是在德国人口的代表性样本中评估生活意义。
在SMiLE中，受访者首先指出至少三个且最多七个对其生活有意义的领域，然后对每个领域当前的重要性水平和满意度进行评分。计算总权重指数（IoW，范围20 - 100）、总满意度（IoS，范围0 - 100）和总加权满意度（IoWS，范围0 - 100）。
2005年7月，随机选取1004名德国人进行访谈（纳入率85.3%）。列出了3521个生活意义领域，并归入13个事后分类。平均IoS为81.9±15.1，平均IoW为84.6±11.9，平均IoWS为82.9±14.8。在青年时期（16 - 19岁），“朋友”对生活意义最为重要；在青年成年期（20 - 29岁）是“伴侣关系”；在中年期（30 - 39岁）是“工作”；在退休期间（60 - 69岁）是“健康”和“利他主义”；在高龄期（70岁及以上）是“精神/宗教”和“自然体验/动物”。
本研究是对随机选取的代表性样本中个体生活意义的首次全国性调查。年龄阶段的生活意义领域似乎与埃里克森的社会心理发展阶段相对应。
