Validation of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) in a chemical factory

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to assess the psychometric properties of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) and to investigate the differences in sense of coherence among demographic groups in a chemical factory environment. The OLQ and a biographical questionnaire were administered to chemical factory employees (N = 583). A three-factor model (manageability, meaningfulness and comprehensibility) was confirmed through structural-equation modelling. From the original 29-item OLQ, an 11-item OLQ and a 6-item OLQ were first derived with good fit statistics. With the 11-item OLQ, significant differences in sense of coherence among some demographic groups viz. qualification and job level were then confirmed.

Financial health and sense of coherence

“…Originally, according to Antonovsky, a general SOC construct that can often be arranged according to three SOC components exists -namely, comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. He did later, however, suggest that these three theoretical components should not be considered as subscales of the SOC measure and, based on a review of several studies, concluded that a single factor is more likely to result from factor analysis (Van Schalkwyk & Rothmann, 2008). Muller (2007) also commented on studies confirming high intercorrelations among the three components.…”

“…Similarly, Gropp et al (2007) and Van Schalkwyk and Rothman (2008) referred to SOC as a general orientation to one's environment that serves as a source of general resistance resources in order to deal with life demands. As such, SOC facilitates one's ability to perceive and control the environment for meaningful and appropriate action (Van Schalkwyk & Rothmann, 2008).…”

“…A construct from the field of positive psychology of particular interest to this study is the salutogenic construct of SOC, identified by Antonovsky (1979) in his exploration of people's psychological coping. According to Van Schalkwyk and Rothmann (2008), SOC has been the focus of much research, the usefulness of the construct being widely supported because it correlates strongly with health in general. SOC has also been a widely researched variable in South African research in the field of industrial and organisational psychology, both in the past (Strümpfer & Wissing, 1998;Viviers & Cilliers, 1999) and more recently (Herbst, Coetzee & Visser, 2007;Nel, Crafford & Roodt, 2004;Oosthuizen & Van Lill, 2008;Van der Colff & Rothmann, 2009;Van Schalkwyk & Rothmann, 2008).…”

“…Various adapted forms of the OLQ have since been used (Van Schalkwyk & Rothmann, 2008). In this study, SOC was measured by means of the shortened 13-item version of the OLQ.…”

“…The higher the score on the OLQ, the stronger the SOC. The reliability and validity of the OLQ-13 were established in various previous studies (Antonovsky, 1993;Feldt & Rasku, 1998;Muller, 2007;Sandell, Blomberg & Lazar, 1998;Strümpfer & Wissing, 1998;Van Schalkwyk & Rothmann, 2008).…”