The Situational Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMILE): Development and Validation Studies

Abstract

The present multi-study work presents a new self-report measure of meaning in life in the context of situational life experiences. Study 1 presents the development of the Situational Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMILE), a six-item measure that integrates the three content-dimensions (comprehension, significance and purpose) and the two process-dimensions (presence and search) of meaning in life. The scale is provided with a situational anchor that can be easily adapted to different event- and time-related situations. Two empirical studies examined the psychometric properties of the SMILE measure. Study 2 involved an Italian representative sample of 3035 individuals (51.6% female; Mage= 48.3, range= 18-91, SD= 14.03). Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the theorized structure of the scale and provided evidence of good internal consistency collected with McDonald’s Omega, generalizability across gender and age was established by measurement invariance, and criterion validity evidence was obtained by correlations with measures of well-being. Study 3 was conducted on a sample of 283 Italian emerging and young adults (76% female; Mage= 26; range= 19-36; SD= 4.09). Results confirmed the SMILE’s structure and internal consistency and added evidence of convergent and incremental validity by conducting a series of hierarchical regressions to test the predictive power of the SMILE over the Meaning in Life Questionnaire on well-being measures. Findings provided evidence of the psychometric properties of the SMILE as a valid and reliable measure of situational meaning in life. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

Activating values intervention: an integrative pathway to well-being

“…Thus, it may be important to further elucidate meaning in life constructs, including various aspects of cognition (comprehension; "having a sense of meaning in life"), experience ("experiencing meaning in life"), and behavior (prioritizing meaning in daily choices and activities) (see also Russo-Netzer, 2019). This is aligned with recent conceptualizations of meaning as a multifaceted and complex experience, which is sensitive to potential changes in timeframes, circumstances and situations (King and Hicks, 2021;Zambelli and Tagliabue, 2024) as well as socio-cultural context (Chao and Kesebir, 2013), and comprised of various dimensions and facets (George and Park, 2016;Martela and Steger, 2016;Russo-Netzer and Vos, 2024).…”