Department of Counseling, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
ScientificWorldJournal. 2020 Jan 28;2020:8361602. doi: 10.1155/2020/8361602. eCollection 2020.
Meaning in life is one of the psychological domains that is most severely affected in patients with life-threatening illnesses. The importance of meaning-making mandates the development of reliable tools to assess this construct. Steger's Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) is one of the most valid and reliable instruments that determines the search for and presence of meaning in life. The present study was conducted to provide psychometric data on the MLQ in a sample of patients with life-threatening illnesses.
The MLQ was completed by 301 patients (aged 20-80 years) diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses (cancer and multiple sclerosis) and referred to hospitals. Confirmatory factor analysis and Pearson's correlation test were used to determine the construct validity of the questionnaire.
The confirmatory factor analysis supported the original two-factor model of the MLQ, comprised of the presence of meaning (five items) and search for meaning (five items). The responses to the MLQ did not differ by sociodemographic factors. Most importantly, contrary to previous findings, the correlation between the two subscales, i.e., search for meaning and presence of meaning, was significant and positive.
The results showed that the MLQ is a valid and reliable measure for assessing meaning in life that can be applied in research on meaning in life among other patient populations.
在患有危及生命疾病的患者中，生活意义是受影响最严重的心理领域之一。意义建构的重要性要求开发可靠的工具来评估这一结构。斯蒂格的生活意义问卷（MLQ）是确定生活意义的寻找和存在的最有效和可靠的工具之一。本研究旨在为患有危及生命疾病的患者样本提供 MLQ 的心理计量学数据。
301 名年龄在 20-80 岁之间的被诊断患有危及生命的疾病（癌症和多发性硬化症）并被转介到医院的患者完成了 MLQ。使用验证性因子分析和皮尔逊相关检验来确定问卷的结构效度。
验证性因子分析支持 MLQ 的原始两因素模型，包括意义的存在（五项）和意义的寻找（五项）。对 MLQ 的反应不受社会人口因素的影响。最重要的是，与先前的发现相反，两个分量表（即意义的寻找和意义的存在）之间的相关性是显著且呈正相关的。
结果表明，MLQ 是一种有效且可靠的测量生活意义的工具，可应用于其他患者群体的生活意义研究中。
