Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ)

Abstract

The Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ) is a widely utilized self-report instrument designed to measure the extent to which an individual’s daily actions are consistent with their chosen personal values. Developed within the framework of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), the VLQ assesses two critical dimensions across ten predefined life domains: the personal importance assigned to each value area and the behavioral consistency of the respondent’s actions with that value. The resulting scores provide therapists and researchers with a quantifiable measure of valued action and potential value-behavior discrepancy, which is central to psychological interventions aimed at increasing psychological flexibility and overall well-being.

Keywords

Valued living, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ACT, psychological flexibility, values assessment, behavioral measurement, self-report, psychological record, valued action.

Authors

Kelly G. Wilson, Amy R. Murrell, Emily K. Sandoz, Jessica Kitchens, M. E. Roberts.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the VLQ is to provide a structured, quantifiable method for assessing an individual’s engagement in life areas deemed personally significant. It serves as a cornerstone tool in ACT, enabling clinicians to identify specific domains where a client’s behavior deviates significantly from their stated values. By measuring both the subjective importance of a value and the objective consistency of behavior, the VLQ helps set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for behavioral treatment and value-directed action.

The instrument is designed to track changes in value-consistent behavior over the course of therapy, thereby providing an outcome measure for the effectiveness of interventions focused on commitment and behavioral activation towards chosen life directions. The assessment highlights the psychological discrepancy that often leads to distress when individuals are unable to pursue what they truly value.

Construct

The VLQ measures the psychological construct of Valued Action, which is the behavioral manifestation of an individual’s core values. This construct is operationalized through two distinct but related sub-constructs:

• Value Importance: The subjective significance an individual places on a specific life domain (e.g., family, work, spirituality).
• Behavioral Consistency: The degree to which the individual’s recent actions align with that stated value in the specified domain.

The VLQ posits that true valued living occurs when both importance and consistency scores are high. The discrepancy between these two scores (Importance minus Consistency) provides a measure of how “stuck” an individual is in a particular life domain, indicating areas where experiential avoidance or lack of commitment is preventing valued living.

Validity

Research examining the psychometric properties of the VLQ, particularly the 2010 study by Wilson and colleagues, supports its validity. The VLQ demonstrates construct validity by correlating negatively with measures of psychological distress (such as depression and anxiety) and positively with measures of well-being and life satisfaction. Furthermore, the measure exhibits criterion validity, showing significant relationships with related behavioral measures of commitment and engagement. Studies confirm that higher valued living scores predict lower levels of psychopathology and greater capacity for psychological flexibility, reinforcing its utility as a core measure within ACT research.

Reliability

The VLQ exhibits strong indicators of internal consistency reliability, particularly when aggregating scores across the ten domains to form a total valued living score or a total consistency score. Studies generally report acceptable to high Cronbach’s alpha values for the consistency dimension, suggesting that the items reliably measure a coherent underlying construct of valued action. Additionally, the VLQ has demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability over short intervals, indicating that the measure provides stable results when values and behaviors are not expected to change rapidly.

Factor Analysis

While the VLQ measures ten distinct domains of life, factor analytic studies typically investigate the structure of the overall measure. These analyses often support a structure that reflects the core conceptual distinction between the two scoring dimensions. Although the instrument is designed to assess ten specific life domains, the primary scoring method often utilizes a single total score reflecting the overall degree of valued action across all domains. Some analyses suggest a two-factor structure corresponding to the separate ratings of “Importance” and “Consistency,” reinforcing the dual nature of the construct being measured.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire.

Format: The instrument consists of 10 items, each representing a broad life domain. Respondents rate each domain twice, using two separate 10-point Likert scales, resulting in 20 data points (10 importance ratings and 10 consistency ratings).

Language Available: Primarily English, but translations have been used in various international studies.

Population Group: Clinical and non-clinical adults.

Age Group: Typically 18 years and older.

Population Details: Used extensively across diverse populations, including individuals seeking treatment for depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and substance abuse, as well as general population samples for well-being research.

Test Methodology: Respondents first rate the personal importance of each domain using a 10-point scale (1 = “not at all important” to 10 = “extremely important”). They then rate the consistency of their actions with that value over a specified recent period (e.g., the last week) using a second 10-point scale (1 = “not at all consistent with my value” to 10 = “completely consistent with my value”).

Keywords

VLQ, valued action, psychological assessment, ACT measure, value discrepancy, behavioral commitment, life domains, self-report scale.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Information not consistently provided in source materials, but authors are associated with major institutions focused on contextual behavioral science.

Affiliation Email addresses: Information not provided in source materials, generally affiliated with institutions like the University of Mississippi (Wilson) and University of Nevada, Reno.

Correspondence Address: Correspondence is typically directed to the primary author, Kelly G. Wilson.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The VLQ is generally considered a public domain instrument used widely in research and clinical practice related to ACT. It is frequently available for non-commercial use without fee, though researchers should always cite the original sources. The initial conceptual work leading to the VLQ was published in 2004, with the definitive scale validation paper published in 2010.

The original PDF of the scale, often used for clinical purposes, can be downloaded here: https://www.div12.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Valued-Living-Questionnaire.pdf

Reference’s

• Wilson, K. G. & Murrell, A. R. (2004). Values work in acceptance and commitment therapy: Setting a course for behavioral treatment. In S. C. Hayes, V. M. Follette, & M. M. Linehan (Eds.), Mindfulness and acceptance: Expanding the cognitive behavioral tradition (pp. 120-151). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• Wilson, K. G., Sandoz, E. K., Kitchens, J., & Roberts, M. E. (2010). The Valued Living Questionnaire: Defining and measuring valued action within a behavioral framework. The Psychological Record, 60, 249-272.
• Additional resource outlining the instrument can be found here: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1261&context=tpr

Items of the Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The VLQ assesses the following ten domains, each rated separately for “importance” and “consistency”:

1. Family (other than marriage or parenting)
2. Marriage/couples/intimate relations
3. Parenting
4. Friends/social life
5. Work
6. Education/training
7. Recreation/fun
8. Spirituality
9. Citizenship/Community Life
10. Physical self-care (diet, exercise, sleep)

Scoring Dimensions:

The two dimensions rated for each area are “importance” and “consistency.”

“Importance” Rating Scale:

Rate each area according to your own personal sense of importance.

1 “not at all important” to 10 “extremely important”

“Consistency” Rating Scale:

Rate the consistency of your actions in this area with your value.

1 “not at all consistent with my value” to 10 “completely consistent with my value”