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Measuring Meaning in Life: An Empirical Comparison of Two Well-Known Measures

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Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the extent to which two widely used psychometric instruments (i.e., MLQ-Presence and SoMe-Meaningfulness subscales) measure the same meaning in life latent trait. Participants were 3,020 subjects (63.9 % women), ranging in age from 18 to 91 years old (M = 33.92; SD = 15.01), sampled from 22 Brazilian states. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the unidimensionality of MLQ-Presence scale, but suggested that two distinct latent variables explained the items of SoMe-Meaningfulness scale. This result was further supported by a bi-factor exploratory structural equation modeling, which showed that items 4 and 5 of the SoMe-Meaningfulness scale were primarily influenced by a second latent trait rather than by MIL. Further analyses showed that this second latent trait was more closely related with self-transcendence issues (generativity and spirituality, specifically) instead of MIL.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the two reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive criticism of previous versions of this manuscript, which significantly contributed for its improvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychometrics, Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Av. Pasteur, 250, Rio de Janeiro, 22290-902, Brazil

    Bruno Figueiredo Damásio

  2. Institute of Psychology, São Francisco University, Itatiba, São Paulo, Brazil

    Nelson Hauck-Filho

  3. Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Sílvia Helena Koller

  4. North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

    Sílvia Helena Koller

Authors
  1. Bruno Figueiredo Damásio
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  2. Nelson Hauck-Filho
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  3. Sílvia Helena Koller
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Correspondence to Bruno Figueiredo Damásio.

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Damásio, B.F., Hauck-Filho, N. & Koller, S.H. Measuring Meaning in Life: An Empirical Comparison of Two Well-Known Measures. J Happiness Stud 17, 431–445 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9602-8

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