Meaning in life in the Federal Republic of Germany: results of a representative survey with the Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMiLE).
BACKGROUND
The construct "meaning-in-life" (MiL) has recently raised the interest of clinicians working in psycho-oncology and end-of-life care and has become a topic of scientific investigation. Difficulties regarding the measurement of MiL are related to the various theoretical and conceptual approaches and its inter-individual variability. Therefore the "Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation" (SMiLE), an individualized instrument for the assessment of MiL, was developed. The aim of this study was to evaluate MiL in a representative sample of the German population.


METHODS
In the SMiLE, the respondents first indicate a minimum of three and maximum of seven areas which provide meaning to their life before rating their current level of importance and satisfaction of each area. Indices of total weighting (IoW, range 20-100), total satisfaction (IoS, range 0-100), and total weighted satisfaction (IoWS, range 0-100) are calculated.


RESULTS
In July 2005, 1,004 Germans were randomly selected and interviewed (inclusion rate, 85.3%). 3,521 areas of MiL were listed and assigned to 13 a-posteriori categories. The mean IoS was 81.9 +/- 15.1, the mean IoW was 84.6 +/- 11.9, and the mean IoWS was 82.9 +/- 14.8. In youth (16-19 y/o), "friends" were most important for MiL, in young adulthood (20-29 y/o) "partnership", in middle adulthood (30-39 y/o) "work", during retirement (60-69 y/o) "health" and "altruism", and in advanced age (70 y/o and more) "spirituality/religion" and "nature experience/animals".


CONCLUSIONS
This study is a first nationwide survey on individual MiL in a randomly selected, representative sample. The MiL areas of the age stages seem to correspond with Erikson's stages of psychosocial development.
Interdisciplinary Center for Palliative Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Marchioninistrasse 15, 81371 Munich, Germany. martin@fegg.de
Martin J
MJ
Fegg
Mechtild
M
Kramer
Claudia
C
Bausewein
Gian D
GD
Borasio
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001290:Attitude; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000523:psychology; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods; D011788:Quality of Life; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D029181:Spirituality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D026712:Value of Life