Psychometric Performance of Meaning in Life Questionnaire Chinese Version for the Elderly in Guangdong

Objective To analyze the psychometric performance of Meaning in Life Questionnaire Chinese Version (C-MLQ) for the elderly in Guangdong Province, China.

Methods A stratified random sampling was used to select 1109 old people from 5 cities in Guangdong province, and C-MLQ was used to investigate them. The floor and ceiling effects were used to analyze the sensitivity of C-MLQ. And then, Cronbach's α coefficient was used to analyze the internal consistency of the questionnaire, and Convergent validity, discriminant validity and factor analysis were used to evaluate its structural validity. Finally, the total score of the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form (GDS-15) was used as the calibration criterion to verify the simultaneity calibration validity of C-MLQ.

Results The total score and the scores of two dimensions of life meaning experience (LME) and life meaning pursuit (LMP) were governed by the normal distribution, without any floor or celling effect. The Cronbach's α coefficient of the total questionnaire was 0.810, and the Cronbach's α coefficients of LME and LMP were 0.739 and 0.775 respectively, which met with the requirements of the group comparison. The calibration success rates of convergent and discriminant validity of LME and LMP were all 100%. Two components obtained from factor analysis, with a cumulative variance contribution rate of 51.261%, which were basically consistent with the theoretical conception of C-MLQ. The total score of C-MLQ was significantly negatively correlated with the total score of GDS-15 (β=- 0.323, P<0.001), only score of LMP in two dimensions significantly negatively predicted the total score of GDS-15 (β=- 0.345, P<0.001).