Measurement Invariance of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Across 17 Countries

Lusilda Schutte; Ingrid Brdar; Marié P. Wissing; Marko Tončić; Ulisses Araujo; Erik Carlquist; Alejandro Castro Solano; Teresa Freire; María del Rocío Hernández-Pozo; Paul E. Jose; Tamás Martos; Jeanne Nakamura; Pamela Nuñez del Prado Chaves; Pninit Russo-Netzer; Kamlesh Singh; Alena Slezackova; Lawrence Soosai-Nathan; Wenceslao Unanue; Dianne A. Vella-Brodrick; Antonella Delle Fave

doi:10.1007/s11482-023-10150-7

Measurement Invariance of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Across 17 Countries

Lusilda Schutte, Ingrid Brdar, Marié P. Wissing, Marko Tončić, Ulisses Araujo, Erik Carlquist, Alejandro Castro Solano, Teresa Freire, María del Rocío Hernández-Pozo, Paul E. Jose, Tamás Martos, Jeanne Nakamura, Pamela Nuñez del Prado Chaves, Pninit Russo-Netzer, Kamlesh Singh, Alena Slezackova, Lawrence Soosai-Nathan, Wenceslao Unanue, Dianne A. Vella-Brodrick, Antonella Delle Fave

Department of Counseling and Human Development

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The Meaning in Life Questionnaire assesses presence of and search for meaning in life. Although the questionnaire has shown promising psychometric properties in samples from different countries, the scale’s measurement invariance across a large number of nations has yet to be assessed. This study is aimed at addressing this gap, providing insight into how meaning in life is constructed and experienced across countries and into the extent to which cross-country comparisons can be made. A total of 3867 adult participants from 17 countries, aged 30–60, balanced by gender, and with at least secondary education, completed the questionnaire as part of the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation. Single sample confirmatory factor analysis, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, and alignment optimization were applied to investigate the scale’s performance across the samples. Good psychometric properties and high levels of approximate measurement invariance emerged for the Presence subscale after removal of item 9, the only reverse-phrased item. Performance of the Search subscale varied more across samples, suggesting caution in interpreting related results supporting approximate measurement invariance. The conceptualization of presence of meaning operationalized in the corresponding subscale (without item 9) appears consistent across countries, whereas search for meaning seems to be less universally homogenous and requires further exploration. Moreover, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire does not reflect the conceptual distinction between “purpose” and “meaning” currently acknowledged by researchers. This issue should be further explored in studies addressing the scale’s performance across cultures.

Original language	English
Journal	Applied Research in Quality of Life
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10150-7
State	Accepted/In press - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Open access funding provided by North-West University. In Croatia, this study was supported in part by the University of Rijeka under the project number uniri-drustv-18–27. In Norway, the University of Oslo financially supported this study. In Portugal, this study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Portuguese State Budget (UIDB/PSI/01662/2020). In South Africa, the research was financially supported in part by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (grant numbers: 91557, 106050, 121948), where the grantholders acknowledge that opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed are that of the authors, and that the South African NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

Keywords

Alignment optimization
Cross-cultural measurement invariance
Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation (EHHI)
Meaning in Life Questionnaire
Measurement

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Life-span and Life-course Studies

Access to Document

10.1007/s11482-023-10150-7

Cite this

Schutte, L., Brdar, I., Wissing, M. P., Tončić, M., Araujo, U., Carlquist, E., Castro Solano, A., Freire, T., Hernández-Pozo, M. D. R., Jose, P. E., Martos, T., Nakamura, J., Nuñez del Prado Chaves, P., Russo-Netzer, P., Singh, K., Slezackova, A., Soosai-Nathan, L., Unanue, W., Vella-Brodrick, D. A., & Delle Fave, A. (Accepted/In press). Measurement Invariance of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Across 17 Countries. Applied Research in Quality of Life. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10150-7

@article{bd9491c0c79e4f74821cf1124b8bb31d,

title = "Measurement Invariance of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Across 17 Countries",

abstract = "The Meaning in Life Questionnaire assesses presence of and search for meaning in life. Although the questionnaire has shown promising psychometric properties in samples from different countries, the scale{\textquoteright}s measurement invariance across a large number of nations has yet to be assessed. This study is aimed at addressing this gap, providing insight into how meaning in life is constructed and experienced across countries and into the extent to which cross-country comparisons can be made. A total of 3867 adult participants from 17 countries, aged 30–60, balanced by gender, and with at least secondary education, completed the questionnaire as part of the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation. Single sample confirmatory factor analysis, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, and alignment optimization were applied to investigate the scale{\textquoteright}s performance across the samples. Good psychometric properties and high levels of approximate measurement invariance emerged for the Presence subscale after removal of item 9, the only reverse-phrased item. Performance of the Search subscale varied more across samples, suggesting caution in interpreting related results supporting approximate measurement invariance. The conceptualization of presence of meaning operationalized in the corresponding subscale (without item 9) appears consistent across countries, whereas search for meaning seems to be less universally homogenous and requires further exploration. Moreover, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire does not reflect the conceptual distinction between “purpose” and “meaning” currently acknowledged by researchers. This issue should be further explored in studies addressing the scale{\textquoteright}s performance across cultures.",

keywords = "Alignment optimization, Cross-cultural measurement invariance, Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation (EHHI), Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Measurement",

author = "Lusilda Schutte and Ingrid Brdar and Wissing, {Mari{\'e} P.} and Marko Ton{\v c}i{\'c} and Ulisses Araujo and Erik Carlquist and {Castro Solano}, Alejandro and Teresa Freire and Hern{\'a}ndez-Pozo, {Mar{\'i}a del Roc{\'i}o} and Jose, {Paul E.} and Tam{\'a}s Martos and Jeanne Nakamura and {Nu{\~n}ez del Prado Chaves}, Pamela and Pninit Russo-Netzer and Kamlesh Singh and Alena Slezackova and Lawrence Soosai-Nathan and Wenceslao Unanue and Vella-Brodrick, {Dianne A.} and {Delle Fave}, Antonella",

note = "Funding Information: Open access funding provided by North-West University. In Croatia, this study was supported in part by the University of Rijeka under the project number uniri-drustv-18–27. In Norway, the University of Oslo financially supported this study. In Portugal, this study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Portuguese State Budget (UIDB/PSI/01662/2020). In South Africa, the research was financially supported in part by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (grant numbers: 91557, 106050, 121948), where the grantholders acknowledge that opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed are that of the authors, and that the South African NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023, The Author(s).",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.1007/s11482-023-10150-7",

language = "English",

journal = "Applied Research in Quality of Life",

issn = "1871-2584",

publisher = "Springer Netherlands",

}

Schutte, L, Brdar, I, Wissing, MP, Tončić, M, Araujo, U, Carlquist, E, Castro Solano, A, Freire, T, Hernández-Pozo, MDR, Jose, PE, Martos, T, Nakamura, J, Nuñez del Prado Chaves, P, Russo-Netzer, P, Singh, K, Slezackova, A, Soosai-Nathan, L, Unanue, W, Vella-Brodrick, DA & Delle Fave, A 2023, 'Measurement Invariance of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Across 17 Countries', Applied Research in Quality of Life. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10150-7

TY - JOUR

T1 - Measurement Invariance of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Across 17 Countries

AU - Schutte, Lusilda

AU - Brdar, Ingrid

AU - Wissing, Marié P.

AU - Tončić, Marko

AU - Araujo, Ulisses

AU - Carlquist, Erik

AU - Castro Solano, Alejandro

AU - Freire, Teresa

AU - Hernández-Pozo, María del Rocío

AU - Jose, Paul E.

AU - Martos, Tamás

AU - Nakamura, Jeanne

AU - Nuñez del Prado Chaves, Pamela

AU - Russo-Netzer, Pninit

AU - Singh, Kamlesh

AU - Slezackova, Alena

AU - Soosai-Nathan, Lawrence

AU - Unanue, Wenceslao

AU - Vella-Brodrick, Dianne A.

AU - Delle Fave, Antonella

N1 - Funding Information: Open access funding provided by North-West University. In Croatia, this study was supported in part by the University of Rijeka under the project number uniri-drustv-18–27. In Norway, the University of Oslo financially supported this study. In Portugal, this study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Portuguese State Budget (UIDB/PSI/01662/2020). In South Africa, the research was financially supported in part by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (grant numbers: 91557, 106050, 121948), where the grantholders acknowledge that opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed are that of the authors, and that the South African NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The Meaning in Life Questionnaire assesses presence of and search for meaning in life. Although the questionnaire has shown promising psychometric properties in samples from different countries, the scale’s measurement invariance across a large number of nations has yet to be assessed. This study is aimed at addressing this gap, providing insight into how meaning in life is constructed and experienced across countries and into the extent to which cross-country comparisons can be made. A total of 3867 adult participants from 17 countries, aged 30–60, balanced by gender, and with at least secondary education, completed the questionnaire as part of the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation. Single sample confirmatory factor analysis, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, and alignment optimization were applied to investigate the scale’s performance across the samples. Good psychometric properties and high levels of approximate measurement invariance emerged for the Presence subscale after removal of item 9, the only reverse-phrased item. Performance of the Search subscale varied more across samples, suggesting caution in interpreting related results supporting approximate measurement invariance. The conceptualization of presence of meaning operationalized in the corresponding subscale (without item 9) appears consistent across countries, whereas search for meaning seems to be less universally homogenous and requires further exploration. Moreover, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire does not reflect the conceptual distinction between “purpose” and “meaning” currently acknowledged by researchers. This issue should be further explored in studies addressing the scale’s performance across cultures.

AB - The Meaning in Life Questionnaire assesses presence of and search for meaning in life. Although the questionnaire has shown promising psychometric properties in samples from different countries, the scale’s measurement invariance across a large number of nations has yet to be assessed. This study is aimed at addressing this gap, providing insight into how meaning in life is constructed and experienced across countries and into the extent to which cross-country comparisons can be made. A total of 3867 adult participants from 17 countries, aged 30–60, balanced by gender, and with at least secondary education, completed the questionnaire as part of the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation. Single sample confirmatory factor analysis, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, and alignment optimization were applied to investigate the scale’s performance across the samples. Good psychometric properties and high levels of approximate measurement invariance emerged for the Presence subscale after removal of item 9, the only reverse-phrased item. Performance of the Search subscale varied more across samples, suggesting caution in interpreting related results supporting approximate measurement invariance. The conceptualization of presence of meaning operationalized in the corresponding subscale (without item 9) appears consistent across countries, whereas search for meaning seems to be less universally homogenous and requires further exploration. Moreover, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire does not reflect the conceptual distinction between “purpose” and “meaning” currently acknowledged by researchers. This issue should be further explored in studies addressing the scale’s performance across cultures.

KW - Alignment optimization

KW - Cross-cultural measurement invariance

KW - Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation (EHHI)

KW - Meaning in Life Questionnaire

KW - Measurement

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U2 - 10.1007/s11482-023-10150-7

DO - 10.1007/s11482-023-10150-7

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85151422558

SN - 1871-2584

JO - Applied Research in Quality of Life

JF - Applied Research in Quality of Life

ER -

Measurement Invariance of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Across 17 Countries

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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