Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ)

View Measure
Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The Meaning in Life Questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80-93.
General information
Purpose The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) is a 10-item measure of the Presence of Meaning in Life, and the Search for Meaning in Life.
Domain(s) Goal Pursuit
Life Satisfaction
Sense of Meaning
Target population Adult
Number of items 10
Administration format self-report
Additional formats
Alternate forms
Availability in other languages Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu
Fee for use
Free
Related information on use of the measure

The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) can be found here.

Non-exhaustive list of psychometric studies

Boyraz, G., Lightsey, O. R., & Can, A. (2013). The Turkish version of the meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the measurement invariance across Turkish and American adult samples. Journal of Personality Assessment, 95(4), 423-431. doi:10.1080/00223891.2013.765882


Brandstätter, M., Baumann, U., Borasio, G. D., & Fegg, M. J. (2012). Systematic review of meaning in life assessment instruments. Psycho-Oncology, 21(10), 1034-1052. doi:10.1002/pon.2113


Chan, W. C. H. (2014). Factor structure of the Chinese version of the meaning in life questionnaire among Hong Kong Chinese caregivers. Health and Social Work, 39(3), 135-143. doi:10.1093/hsw/hlu025


Chika Chukwuorji, J., Ekpedoho, E. A., Ifeagwazi, C. M., Iorfa, S. K., & Nwonyi, S. K. (2019). Psychometric properties of the meaning in life questionnaire – Hausa version among internally displaced persons in Nigeria. Transcultural Psychiatry, 56(1), 103-122. doi:10.1177/1363461518794218


Hallford, D. J., Mellor, D., Cummins, R. A., & McCabe, M. P. (2018). Meaning in life in earlier and later older-adulthood: Confirmatory factor analysis and correlates of the meaning in life questionnaire. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 37(10), 1270-1294. doi:10.1177/0733464816658750


Naghiyaee, M., Bahmani, B., & Asgari, A. (2020). The psychometric properties of the meaning in life questionnaire (MLQ) in patients with life-threatening illnesses. Scientific World Journal, 2020 doi:10.1155/2020/8361602


Negri, L., Bassi, M., & Delle Fave, A. (2020). Italian validation of the meaning in life questionnaire: Factor structure, reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity. Psychological Reports, 123(2), 578-600. doi:10.1177/0033294118821302


Rose, L. M., Zask, A., & Burton, L. J. (2017). Psychometric properties of the meaning in life questionnaire (MLQ) in a sample of Australian adolescents. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 22(1), 68-77. doi:10.1080/02673843.2015.1124791


Schulenberg, S. E., Strack, K. M., & Buchanan, E. M. (2011). The meaning in life questionnaire: Psychometric properties with individuals with serious mental illness in an inpatient setting. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67(12), 1210-1219. doi:10.1002/jclp.20841


Schutte, L., Wissing, M. P., Ellis, S. M., Jose, P. E., & Vella-Brodrick, D. A. (2016). Rasch analysis of the meaning in life questionnaire among adults from south Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 14(1) doi:10.1186/s12955-016-0414-x

Additional information

Commercial use is prohibited without permission.

Interested users need to contact Dr. Steger at steg0043@umn.edu to let them how you plan to use the measure and what you find out.