The Maṅgala Sutta Inventory, or MSI-76, is a newly developed 76-item self-assessment based on the 38 blessings taught in the Maṅgala Sutta.

The inventory has a documented conceptual structure and scoring method, but it has not yet undergone formal psychometric validation. Its reliability, ten-area structure, relationships with other established measures, and ability to detect meaningful change remain subjects for future research.

The MSI-76 should currently be understood as a reflective and educational instrument rather than a clinically validated psychological assessment.

Has the MSI-76 Been Scientifically Validated?

No. The Maṅgala Sutta Inventory has not yet been validated through published psychometric research.

At present, there are no completed studies establishing:

• Internal consistency
• Test-retest reliability
• Structural validity
• Convergent or discriminant validity
• Associations with depression, anxiety, well-being, mindfulness, or related measures
• Differences among groups expected to score differently
• Sensitivity to change over time
• Validated score thresholds
• Normative scores for particular populations

This does not mean that the MSI-76 has no value. It means that its current value rests primarily in structured reflection, education, discussion, and exploratory use rather than established psychological measurement.

How the MSI-76 Items Were Developed

The MSI-76 was developed from the traditional list of 38 blessings in the Maṅgala Sutta.

Two questions were created for each blessing, producing a total of 76 items. The initial item-development process was led by the inventory’s author with assistance from generative artificial intelligence. The questions were reviewed and organized to reflect the practical meaning of each blessing in modern daily life.

The items address areas such as:

• Relationships and social influences
• Living conditions and personal direction
• Learning and useful skills
• Family responsibilities and livelihood
• Generosity and ethical conduct
• Restraint and vigilance
• Humility, gratitude, and contentment
• Patience and teachability
• Spiritual practice and insight
• Stability amid changing circumstances

The use of artificial intelligence during drafting should be disclosed as part of the development history. AI assistance can support item generation, but it does not replace expert review, participant interviews, or statistical testing.

How the 76 Items Relate to the 38 Blessings

Each blessing is represented by two questions intended to examine how that blessing may appear in conduct, choices, relationships, awareness, or practice.

This two-item structure provides direct conceptual coverage of all 38 blessings. However, assigning questions to a blessing does not by itself establish that the questions measure that blessing accurately or completely.

The current mapping provides a theoretical and textual rationale for the inventory. Formal content-validity research would still need to examine whether the items are:

• Relevant to the intended blessing
• Comprehensive enough to represent it
• Clearly understood by intended users
• Appropriate across different backgrounds and levels of Buddhist experience

Content validity is generally evaluated through systematic review by knowledgeable experts and members of the population expected to use the instrument. It concerns the relevance, comprehensiveness, and comprehensibility of the instrument’s content. (COSMIN)

Does the MSI-76 Have Face Validity?

The MSI-76 has apparent or preliminary face validity in the ordinary sense that its questions were written to correspond directly with specific blessings.

Someone reading an item may reasonably recognize the relationship between the question and the teaching it represents. For example, questions about social influences appear relevant to association with wise or unwise people, while questions about emotional steadiness appear relevant to the unshakable mind.

However, face validity is based largely on appearance and judgment. It is not strong empirical evidence, and it does not establish that the instrument measures its intended concepts consistently or accurately.

A more careful statement would be:

The MSI-76 was designed for clear conceptual alignment with the 38 blessings, but its content validity has not yet been formally evaluated.

The Ten-Area Structure

The 76 items are grouped into ten larger assessment areas:

1. Foundation of Association
2. Environmental & Directional Stability
3. Learning & Skill
4. Family & Livelihood
5. Generosity & Moral Clarity
6. Restraint & Vigilance
7. Inner Virtues
8. Mental Strength
9. Deep Practice & Insight
10. The Unshakable Mind

These ten areas reflect an interpretive organization of the Maṅgala Sutta’s developmental progression. They move from relationships and living conditions through ethical conduct, personal development, deeper practice, and inner steadiness.

The structure is currently theory-driven. Statistical analysis has not yet confirmed that responses naturally form these ten distinct dimensions.

Factor analysis would be needed to examine whether:

• Items assigned to the same area tend to relate to one another
• The proposed ten-area structure fits actual response data
• Some areas overlap too heavily
• Certain items fit better in another area
• Some areas should be combined, separated, or revised

Until that research is conducted, the ten areas should be described as the proposed scoring structure, not a statistically confirmed factor structure.

Explore the ten assessment areas of the MSI-76.

How the MSI-76 Is Scored

Each item uses a five-point response scale. Responses are converted to values from 1 to 5.

Items describing harmful or unhelpful patterns are reverse-coded so that higher adjusted scores consistently represent greater alignment with the blessing being assessed.

The adjusted item scores are then averaged within each of the ten assessment areas. Each area receives a score from 1.0 to 5.0, rounded to one decimal place.

The current scoring method produces ten separate area scores rather than one official overall score.

Read the complete MSI-76 scoring and interpretation guide.

What Does Reliability Mean?

Reliability does not simply mean that the questions sound clear or reasonable. Clarity is important, but it is only one aspect of instrument development.

Reliability concerns the consistency and reproducibility of scores. Common forms of reliability research include:

Internal consistency

Internal consistency examines whether items intended to contribute to the same score are sufficiently related to one another.

This would need to be studied separately for each MSI-76 assessment area. A single reliability statistic for all 76 items might be misleading because the inventory intentionally covers multiple areas rather than one narrow concept.

Test-retest reliability

Test-retest reliability examines whether people receive reasonably similar scores when completing the inventory again after a period during which meaningful change is not expected.

If scores change dramatically without a clear reason, the measure may not be sufficiently stable.

Neither internal consistency nor test-retest reliability has yet been established for the MSI-76.

What Would Construct Validity Research Examine?

Construct validity asks whether scores relate to other measures and groups in ways that make theoretical sense. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

Researchers could make predictions before collecting data. For example:

• MSI-76 scores may correlate positively with established measures of well-being, meaning in life, compassion, mindfulness, gratitude, or psychological flexibility.
• Certain areas may correlate negatively with measures of harmful substance use, impulsivity, chronic interpersonal conflict, depression, anxiety, or emotional reactivity.
• Long-term practitioners may score differently in some areas than people who are unfamiliar with the Maṅgala Sutta.
• Individual assessment areas may show stronger relationships with certain outside measures than others.

These are hypotheses, not established findings.

A positive correlation with well-being would provide some evidence that MSI-76 scores behave as expected. It would not prove that practicing the Maṅgala Sutta caused greater well-being.

Likewise, a negative correlation with depression would not make the MSI-76 a depression screening tool. Clinical screening requires separate development, evidence, interpretation standards, and validation for that specific purpose.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity

Convergent validity examines whether MSI-76 scores relate to measures of concepts that should theoretically be connected.

For example, Inner Virtues might be expected to relate to gratitude or humility, while The Unshakable Mind might relate to equanimity, emotional regulation, or psychological flexibility.

Discriminant validity examines whether MSI-76 scores remain sufficiently distinct from measures of unrelated concepts.

The goal is not for the MSI-76 to correlate strongly with everything positive. If it did, the inventory might be measuring only a broad tendency to describe oneself favorably rather than the particular qualities represented by the Maṅgala Sutta.

Is There a Gold Standard for Comparison?

Probably not.

Criterion validity compares a new instrument with an accepted gold-standard measure of the same concept. For many complex personal, spiritual, or self-reported concepts, no true gold standard exists. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

There is no established instrument that definitively measures how fully someone embodies the 38 blessings of the Maṅgala Sutta.

Research would therefore be more likely to rely on:

• Convergent validity
• Discriminant validity
• Factor analysis
• Known-groups comparisons
• Test-retest reliability
• Qualitative interviews
• Sensitivity to change

Can MSI-76 Scores Be Linked to Depression or Well-Being?

Not at this time.

No current evidence establishes that people with higher MSI-76 scores are less depressed, less anxious, or more psychologically well.

Those relationships could be examined by administering the MSI-76 alongside established measures of depression, anxiety, well-being, mindfulness, meaning, or quality of life.

Possible findings might include:

• A positive association
• A negative association
• No meaningful relationship
• Different relationships for different MSI-76 areas
• Relationships that vary by population or level of Buddhist experience

Until studies are conducted, the website should not claim or imply that MSI-76 scores predict mental health, diagnose distress, or demonstrate psychological well-being.

Current Appropriate Uses

At its present stage of development, the MSI-76 may be used for:

• Personal reflection
• Dhamma study
• Educational discussion
• Coaching conversations
• Study groups
• Exploration of the 38 blessings
• Preliminary or exploratory research with clear limitations
• Generating questions for future research

It should not currently be used as:

• A clinical diagnostic test
• A mental-health screening instrument
• A substitute for professional evaluation
• Proof of spiritual attainment
• A basis for employment or educational decisions
• A validated outcome measure for making strong causal claims

The MSI-76 documentation already identifies the inventory as reflective rather than diagnostic.

Recommended Research Plan

A staged research program could strengthen the MSI-76 over time.

1. Expert review

Invite scholars of early Buddhism, experienced practitioners, psychometricians, and professionals familiar with questionnaire design to evaluate the relationship between each item and its assigned blessing.

They could assess:

• Relevance
• Accuracy
• Completeness
• Redundancy
• Cultural assumptions
• Wording
• Proposed area placement

2. Cognitive interviews

Ask members of the intended population to complete the MSI-76 while explaining how they understand each question and response option.

This can identify:

• Confusing wording
• Multiple interpretations
• Questions that combine more than one idea
• Response options that do not fit the question
• Differences between Buddhist and non-Buddhist readers

3. Pilot testing

Administer the inventory to an initial group and examine:

• Missing responses
• Response distributions
• Items that almost everyone answers the same way
• Items that do not relate to their assigned area
• Completion time
• Participant feedback

4. Structural analysis

Use exploratory factor analysis to investigate how the items group together in real response data.

A later study with a separate sample could use confirmatory factor analysis to test the proposed structure or an amended structure.

5. Reliability studies

Evaluate:

• Internal consistency within each area
• Test-retest stability
• Item-total relationships
• Measurement error

6. Construct-validity studies

Compare MSI-76 scores with established measures of related and unrelated concepts using hypotheses established before analyzing the data.

7. Known-groups research

Examine whether scores differ among groups that theory suggests may differ, while avoiding assumptions that religious identity or years of practice automatically indicate greater development.

8. Sensitivity-to-change research

Study whether MSI-76 scores change after structured practice, education, coaching, or engagement with the Maṅgala Sutta.

A change in score should not automatically be interpreted as meaningful until the measure’s responsiveness and expected measurement error are understood. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

9. Cultural and language research

Examine whether questions and scores function similarly across:

• Buddhist traditions
• Religious and nonreligious participants
• Countries and cultures
• Age groups
• Languages
• Levels of familiarity with Buddhist terminology

An Opportunity for Graduate Research

The MSI-76 could provide a substantial project for a graduate student or research team interested in psychometrics, Buddhist studies, contemplative science, religious studies, well-being, or assessment development.

Possible thesis or dissertation projects could focus on:

• Content validation
• Cognitive interviewing
• Factor analysis
• Reliability
• Construct validity
• Cross-cultural adaptation
• Short-form development
• Responsiveness to a structured intervention

Open access to the inventory, scoring instructions, and data dictionary can make independent evaluation and replication easier.

Open Science Materials and DOI

The MSI-76 technical materials are available through the Open Science Framework.

They include:

• Inventory instructions
• Scoring procedures
• Response scales
• Reverse-coding information
• Assessment-area assignments
• Data dictionary
• Attribution and licensing requirements

Download the MSI-76 research and scoring materials from the Open Science Framework.

Permanent DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/JG9QH

Public documentation of an instrument’s development history, scoring system, and research evidence supports transparency and allows independent researchers to evaluate its claims. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

Licensing and Attribution

The MSI-76 is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License.

The materials may be used, shared, and adapted for noncommercial purposes with appropriate attribution.

The required attribution is:

Based on the Maṅgala Sutta Inventory (MSI-76) developed by G.S. Graham. Derived from Living the Maṅgala Sutta (2025).

Current Research Statement

The following statement may be used when describing the MSI-76:

The Maṅgala Sutta Inventory is a theory-informed, 76-item reflective self-assessment based on the 38 blessings of the Maṅgala Sutta. Its items, ten-area structure, and scoring method have been documented and released for open review. Formal studies of content validity, reliability, structural validity, construct validity, and sensitivity to change have not yet been completed. The MSI-76 should therefore be used for reflection, education, and exploratory research rather than diagnosis or validated psychological assessment.