Author(s)

HaiYing Deng^*, WeiLi Qiao, Sheng Huang

Affiliation(s)

School of Computer Science, Guangdong Agriculture Industry Business Polytechnic, Guangzhou 510507, Guangdong, China.

Corresponding Author

HaiYing Deng

ABSTRACT

With the advancement of the localization of research on the meaning of life, the precise measurement of college students’ purpose in life has become a crucial entry point for analyzing the formation of youth value systems. Existing Western scales fail to accurately capture the integrated value characteristics of collective responsibility, social commitment, and individual development within the Chinese cultural context. In response, this study developed the College Students’ Purpose in Life Scale based on a sample of 286 college students from a university in Guangzhou. Drawing on classical Western frameworks and integrating indigenous cultural features, items were generated through literature review, expert evaluation, and pilot testing. The final scale comprises four dimensions: collectivism, individualism, materialism, and hedonism. Exploratory factor analysis extracted four common factors, with a cumulative variance explanation of 61.8% and factor loadings ranging from 0.62 to 0.84. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated good model fit (χ2/df = 2.31, RMSEA = 0.057, CFI = 0.892, TLI = 0.871). Cronbach’s α coefficients for the four dimensions ranged from 0.788 to 0.835, and all composite reliability values exceeded 0.82, meeting psychometric standards. The empirical results revealed that college students’ purpose in life was predominantly “collectivism-oriented.” The collectivism dimension had the highest mean score of 4.01 (3.60–4.21), while individualism 2.14 (1.87–2.39), materialism 2.01 (1.91–2.12), and hedonism 2.38 (2.05–2.64) all showed relatively low mean values. This scale enriches the repertoire of indigenous instruments for measuring college students’ purpose in life and provides a standardized tool for research on youth value orientation and educational intervention.

KEYWORDS

College students; Purpose in life; Scale development; Reliability and validity testing

CITE THIS PAPER

HaiYing Deng, WeiLi Qiao, Sheng Huang. Development and validation of the college students’ purpose in life scale. World Journal of Educational Studies. 2025, 3(6): 1-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.61784/wjes3081.

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