The meaning in life scale: Determining the reliability and validity of a measure

Abstract

The Meaning in Life (ML) Scale and Uniscale were developed to assess the sense of purpose, beliefs, and faith of patients in hospice and rehabilitative programs. Specialists have called for such instruments as meaning in life is not adequately measured by quality of life measures. The reliability and validity of the measures were tested with 257 English and French patients in long term care facilities in Montreal. The internal consistency of the responses to the 15 items in the ML Scale and the stability of the measures over a two week period were at acceptable levels. With respect to construct validity, the direction and magnitude of the correlation of the measures with those of subjective well-being, social support, pain, activities of daily living, quality of life, and social desirability were generally as predicted. Further research is required to determine the utility of the ML Scale and Uniscale in clinical research.