A Psychometric Validation of the Claremont Purpose Scale with an Emerging Adult University Student Population

Abstract

Purpose is a key protective factor for well-being, resilience, and satisfaction with life. The Claremont Purpose Scale (CPS) was developed by Bronk and colleagues with adolescents and emerging adults to measure three dimensions of purpose: Meaning, Goal-Directedness, and Beyond-the-Self. The psychometric properties examined in the original scale development paper were replicated with our independent, emerging adult college student sample: confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of a 3-factor model, good-to-excellent internal consistency, convergent validity with a measure of general perceived meaning in life (MLQ-P), and discriminant validity with a measure of self-reported depression (DASS-21-D). Additional psychometrics examined in this study were test–retest reliability, a 1-factor CFA model, correlations with stress and anxiety, and descriptive statistics that had not yet been reported in the literature. Beyond-the-self items did not load well onto the overall factor in the 1-factor model, and their correlations with other scales (MLQ-S, DASS-21 subscales) differed significantly from the correlations between these other scales and the CPS total, General Meaning, and Goal-Directedness scores. Implications of these data include strong support for the use of each subscale as a distinct, psychometric index, and we recommend the total scale score not be used as a measure of overall purpose. Clearly, there are separate, but related, facets to this measure that, while positive, undermine the utility of a global purpose score. A slightly changed naming of the CPS to the “Claremont Purpose Scales” could promote their use as three separate scales instead of a single, total scale score.