Validity of the reduced version of the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to validate the reduced version of the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQr) using circadian motor activity as external criterion. The MEQr was administered to a sample of 130 university students, 42 males and 88 females. All the students wore an actigraph (AMI 32K) on the non-dominant wrist for three consecutive nights and days. Acrophase was computed using cosinor analysis. The circadian motor activity of evening types presented a significant phase delay versus intermediate and morning types. Results show that the MEQr has good external validity.

Distribution of chronotypes in a large sample of young adult Saudis

“…The MEQr has been shown to successfully identify human circadian typology in both experimental and applied research 6. Three questions establish the preferred morning wake-up time, evening bedtime and the hour of the day when personal efficiency is maximal.…”

“…The MEQr originally established five behavioral categories: definitively morning-type (score, 22-25), moderately morning-type (score, 18-21), neither-type (score, 12-17), moderately evening-type (score, 8-11) and definitively evening-type (score, 4-7). In the present study, we adopted the simpler classification used by Taillard and colleagues and other researchers: morning-type (M-type; score, 18-25), neither-type (N-type; score, 12-17) and evening-type (E-type; score, 4-11) 5689…”

“…The Horne and Ostberg morningness-eveningness questionnaire (MEQ) is currently the most widely used tool for identifying individual chronotypes and physiological correlates of circadian rhythmicity in diverse cultures 3. The MEQ has been criticized for its excessive length (19 questions), and a reduced version (MEQr) has been developed that has only 5 questions 4–6…”

Morning or Evening person? Which type are you? Self-assessment of chronotype

“…Thus rMEQ-5 offers an easy, reliable equivalent to the rMEQ scale, measure of individuals' chronotype. Previous studies (Natale et al, 2006;Tonetti et al, 2011) have suggested that the midpoint of sleep, calculated considering the hourly preference for getting up or go to sleep (rMEQ items' 1 and 3) may offer a reliable measure of the circadian typology. Although that measure is a more indirect self-assessment measure than the one offered by rMEQ-5 item we interpret those results as also corroborating our argument that chronotype is a conscious dimension able of selfassessment.…”

Synchrony effects on customers' responses and behaviors

“…Following comments in the literature concerning the length and the practicality for researchers of the relatively long nineteen-item MEQ (e.g., Natale, Esposito, Martoni, & Fabbi et al, 2006), we explored a reduced, more practical scale. Therefore, an additional purpose of Study 2 was to employ a reduced version of Horne and Ostberg's (1976) questionnaire (MEQr), shown to be psychometrically sound and easily implemented in marketing studies.…”