What is the Meaning in Life Questionnaire?
The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) is a widely utilized tool in counseling psychology and other related fields to understand aspects of an individual's psychological well-being. It is a 10-item measure, providing valuable insight into how individuals perceive and pursue a meaningful life across their life span (Steger, 2010).
The MLQ is split into two subscales; The Presence of Meaning subscale, measuring how full respondents feel their lives are of meaning (Steger, 2010). This subscale if positively related to well-being and negatively related to anxiety and depression. The other subscale is the Search for Meaning subscale, measuring how engaged and motivated respondents are in efforts to find meaning or deepen their understanding of meaning in their lives. For example, this subscale is positively related to the negative affect, and negatively related to future time perspective (Steger, 2010).
There have been numerous studies testing the psychometric properties of the MLQ against various sample groups, such as, adolescents psychological health, patients with life threatening illnesses and patients with serious mental illness (Rose, et al., 2016; Naghiyaee, et.al., 2020; Schulenberg, et al., 2011). The relevant research findings showed that scale analysis results had satisfactory internal consistency, along with the confirmatory factor analysis showing support for the two-factor model (Rose et al., 2016). The MLQ has demonstrated its stable factor structure, established through exploratory factor analysis, making it a reliable instrument in diverse populations (Steger, et al., 2006).
