SOC Orientation to Life Questionnaires

The orientation to life questionnaire (OLQ) is the operational definition of the salutogenic model's core construct, the sense of coherence (SOC). The questionnaire has been found to be reliable (internal consistency and temporal stability) and valid (convergent and discriminant construct validity) in thousands of studies conducted in dozens of countries.

If you are not sure which version of the SOC scale (orientation to life questionnaire) to use, or if you are not sure it is suitable for your study, you may post a question on the SOC Scales Forum.

Note that access to the scales is available to STARS members only. If you are researching in the field of Salutogenesis, consider joining. Membership is free. Click here for more information.

SOC-29

The 29-item version of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire is the original questionnaire used to measure the sense of coherence. 11 items measure the comprehensibility component, 10 items measure the manageability component, and 8 items measure the meaningfulness component.

The SOC-29 is available in Croatian, Czech, English, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Welsh.

Please note that on the download page for the questionnaires you may find a codification file with detailed instructions on scoring that you are required to use.

SOC-13

The 13-item of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire is the shortened version of the SOC-29. Its psychometric properties are good and it is offered in several languages. It is especially useful for measuring sense of coherence when used in long questionnaires that include other measures, as well as for populations who need assistance in filling out the questionnaire, or when administering it face-to-face.

The SOC-13 is available in Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Lithuanian, Malay, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, and Urdu.

Please note that on the download page for the questionnaires you may find a codification file with detailed instructions on scoring that you are required to use.

Validation studies

Smrekar, M., Zaletel-Kragelj, L., Petrak, O., & Franko, A. (2020). Validation of the Croatian Version of the Sense of Coherence 29-Item Scale in Croatian Nurses. Slovenian Journal of Public Health, 59(3), 155-163.
Stern, B., Socan, G., Rener-Sitar, K., Kukec, A., & Zaletel-Kragelj, L. (2019). Validation of the Slovenian version of short sense of coherence questionnaire (SOC-13) in multiple sclerosis patients. Slovenian Journal of Public Health, 58(1), 31-39.
Mahammadzadeh, A., Poursharifi, H., & Alipour, A. (2010). Validation of Sense of Coherence (SOC) 13-item scale in Iranian sample. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5, 1451-1455.
Saravia, J. C., Iberico, C., & Yearwood, K. (2014). Validation of sense of coherence (SOC) 13-item scale in a Peruvian sample. Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues, 6(2), 35-44.
Karalis, I., Langius, A., Tsirogianni, M., Faresjö, T., Nettelbladt, P., & Lionis, C. (2004). The translation-validation of the sense of coherence scale into Greek and its use in primary health care. Archives of Hellenic Medicine, 21(2), 195-203.