Measurement Invariance of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Across 17 Countries

• Autores: Schutte, Lusilda; Brdar, Ingrid; Wissing, Marié P.; Tončić, Marko; Araujo, Ulisses; Carlquist, Erik; Castro Solano, Alejandro; Freire, Teresa; Hernández Pozo, María del Rocío; Jose, Paul E.; Martos, Tamás; Nakamura, Jeanne; Nuñez del Prado Chaves, Pamela; Russo Netzer, Pninit; Singh, Kamlesh; Slezackova, Alena; Soosai Nathan, Lawrence; Unanue, Wenceslao; Vella Brodrick, Dianne A.; Delle Fave, Antonella
• Año de publicación: 2023
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: ALIGNMENT OPTIMIZATION; CROSS-CULTURAL MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE; EUDAIMONIC AND HEDONIC HAPPINESS INVESTIGATION (EHHI); MEANING IN LIFE QUESTIONNAIRE; MEASUREMENT
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

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.
Fil: Schutte, Lusilda. North West University; Sudáfrica
Fil: Brdar, Ingrid. University of Rijeka; Croacia
Fil: Wissing, Marié P.. North West University; Sudáfrica
Fil: Tončić, Marko. University of Rijeka; Croacia
Fil: Araujo, Ulisses. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasil
Fil: Carlquist, Erik. University of Oslo; Noruega
Fil: Castro Solano, Alejandro. Universidad de Palermo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Freire, Teresa. University of Minho; Brasil
Fil: Hernández Pozo, María del Rocío. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; México
Fil: Jose, Paul E.. Victoria University of Wellington; Estados Unidos
Fil: Martos, Tamás. University of Szeged; Hungría
Fil: Nakamura, Jeanne. Claremont Graduate University; Estados Unidos
Fil: Nuñez del Prado Chaves, Pamela. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú; Perú
Fil: Russo Netzer, Pninit. University of Haifa; Israel
Fil: Singh, Kamlesh. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi; India
Fil: Slezackova, Alena. Masaryk University; República Checa
Fil: Soosai Nathan, Lawrence. MK University; India
Fil: Unanue, Wenceslao. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; Chile
Fil: Vella Brodrick, Dianne A.. University of Melbourne; Australia
Fil: Delle Fave, Antonella. Università degli Studi di Milano; Italia