Measuring Domains: 6 Assessments
There is an abundance of instruments that assess the overall quality of life and scales that measure life satisfaction. There are also a vast number of domain-specific assessments. Let us have a look at these.
1. The World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF)
The WHOQOL-BREF (World Health Organization, 2012) is a self-report assessment of the quality of life within the context of the person’s culture, values, goals, and concerns.
It focuses on six areas:
- Everyday life
- Physical health
- Psychological health
- Participation
- Quality of life
- Social relationships
It is a 26 item short-form inventory. The items are rated on a five-point Likert scale. It is quick to use and a reliable and validated assessment, used within extensive research studies and clinical trials.
The assessment provides a mean score for each life domain. The higher the score, the higher the quality of life.
The benefits of using this assessment are that it has been field tested in many cultural contexts and is available in 19 languages.
A copy of the full scale can be found on the World Health Organization’s website.
2. Spirituality and Assessment Scale (SAS)
The SAS (Howden, 1992) is a 28-statement scale using a 6-point Likert scale. In this assessment, spirituality is defined as an integrated dimension of one’s being. It is considered to be a reliable and valid measure of the fundamental human dimension of spirituality (not religiosity).
It assesses interconnectedness, meaning, and purpose in life. It also looks at transcendence and inner resources.
A copy of the full scale can be found at ProQuest.
3. Family Assessment Measure-III (FAM-III)
The FAM-III (Skinner, Steinhauer, & Santa-Barbara, 1995) assesses family functioning by emphasizing family dynamics and provides numerical scores to highlight a family’s strengths and weaknesses.
It examines family health, relationships, and family functioning. It can lead to improvements in assessing, treating, and understanding dysfunction and problems within the family domain.
The FAM-III provides a multi-rater and multi-generational assessment of the functioning of six clinical parameters and two validity scales. The Brief FAM is a short version that can screen for initial evaluations of the family domain, although FAM-III provides much more information.
A copy of the full scale can be found at the York University Psychology Resource Center.
4. Work Stress Questionnaire (WSQ)
The WSQ (Holmgren, Dahlin-Ivanoff, Björkelund, & Hensing, 2009) is a self-administered questionnaire developed to assess individuals at risk of work-related stress and imbalance in the work domain.
This 21 item questionnaire is self-administered and considered to be reliable and valid. It covers four key themes:
- Organizational conflicts
- Demands and commitments
- Influence at work
- Leisure time interference from work
There are multiple-choice responses.
This assessment is an essential means of assessing work-related stress and imbalance in this specific domain.
A copy of the full scale is provided by Kristina Holmgren.
5. General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ)
The GHQ-28 (Goldberg, 1981) is a globally used assessment of general health that includes physical and psychological health and provides an overall opinion on the quality of a person’s life, given their health.
It provides four scores:
- Somatic symptoms
- Anxiety and insomnia
- Social dysfunction
- Depression (severe)
The measure is self-reported with multiple-choice options. The higher the score, the higher the level of distress, indicating an imbalance within the health domain.
A copy of the full scale can be requested from GL Assessment.
6. Community Quality of Life Survey
This Community Quality of Life Survey (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, 2017) is a self-report survey for adults over 16 years old, examining their identity, sense of community, civic engagement, social action, volunteering, loneliness, and subjective wellbeing.
It provides an overall idea of whether this domain is imbalanced due to too little community involvement. It includes information on social cohesion, community engagement, and social action.
A copy of the full scale can be found on GOV.UK.