The DOI matches its Crossref record; 47 of the 47 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Life Engagement Test: Assessing Purpose in Life
Open accessAbstract
This article describes a 6-item scale, the Life Engagement Test, designed to measure purpose in life, defined in terms of the extent to which a person engages in activities that are personally valued. Psychometric data are presented including information about the scale's factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminant predictive validity, and norms. The data suggest that the Life Engagement Test is psychometrically sound across different gender, age, and ethnic groups and is appropriate for wider use. Discussion centers on the use of the Life Engagement Test in behavioral medicine and health psychology research and recent associations that have begun to emerge between the scale and health-relevant outcomes.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“This self-regulation model of purpose by Scheier and colleagues suggests that it is effort and progress toward a purpose that maximizes the generation of well-being.”
From Commitment to a purpose in life: An antidote to the suffering by individuals with social anxiety disorder. (2013) · cites this paper as Scheier et al., 2006
In the citing paper
“the Engaged Living Scale (ELS) and Life Engagement Test (LET) each include items to measure motivation and reward, life fulfillment, and value-based living [22, 23].”
From Patient-reported outcome measures for life engagement in mental health: a systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [23]
In the citing paper
“The LET [23] measures purpose in life.”
From Patient-reported outcome measures for life engagement in mental health: a systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [23]
In the citing paper
“In a general non-clinical sample, university students, and a variety of clinical (non-mental health) samples, the LET showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.72–0.87), moderately stable test–retest reliability (r = 0.61–0.76), and construct validity based on correlations with other psychosocial measures including depression (r = − 0.33 to − 0.49) and mental health (r = 0.32–0.49)”
From Patient-reported outcome measures for life engagement in mental health: a systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [23]
Citations
Cites
The CES-D Scale: A Self-Report Depression Scale for Research in the General Population
Radloff, L. S. (1977) · Applied Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/014662167700100306 · Cited by 53,267
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index: a new instrument for psychiatric practice and research
Buysse, D. J., Reynolds, C. F., Monk, T. H., Berman, S. R., & Kupfer, D. J. (1989) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/0165-1781(89)90047-4 · Cited by 35,234
(1992) · PubMed · Cited by 33,716
A Global Measure of Perceived Stress
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.2307/2136404 · Cited by 32,807
Self-citationDevelopment and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063 · Cited by 32,433
The satisfaction with life scale
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 · Cited by 31,768
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
Rosenberg, M. (1965) · doi:10.1515/9781400876136 · Cited by 30,126
The MOS 36-ltem Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36): I. Conceptual Framework and Item Selection
Ware, J. E., & Sherbourne, C. D. (1992) · Medical Care · doi:10.1097/00005650-199206000-00002 · Cited by 30,033
Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being.
Ryff, C. D. (1989) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069 · Cited by 14,847
(1964) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 10,439
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A new look at social support: A theoretical perspective on thriving through relationships
Feeney, B. C., & Collins, N. L. (2015) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868314544222 · Cited by 1,521
Boehm, J. K., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2012) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0027448 · Cited by 909
George, L. S., & Park, C. L. (2016) · Review of General Psychology · doi:10.1037/gpr0000077 · Cited by 682
Association of Enjoyable Leisure Activities with Psychological and Physical Well-Being
Pressman, S. D., Matthews, K. A., Cohen, S., Martire, L. M., Scheier, M., Baum, A., & Schulz, R. (2009) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/psy.0b013e3181ad7978 · Cited by 558
“Purpose in life was measured using the Life Engagement Test (33), a scale designed to assess the extent to which a person has a sense of purpose and meaning in life ( 0.87).”
MethodInfluentialSelf-citationThe Science of Meaning in Life
King, L. A., & Hicks, J. A. (2020) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-072420-122921 · Cited by 633
Metadata
- Authors
- Scheier, M. F., Wrosch, C., Baum, A., Cohen, S., Martire, L. M., Matthews, K. A., Schulz, R., & Zdaniuk, B.
- Affiliations
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- Concordia University (CA)
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- Corresponding author
- Scheier, Michael F.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Behavioral Medicine
- Published
- 2006-03-24
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 291-298
- ISSN
- 0160-7715 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3521
- OpenAlex
- W2098156554
- Cited by
- 539
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 6.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Behavioral Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- KiltHub Repository (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- KiltHub Repository
- Funders
- University of Pittsburgh
- Carnegie Mellon University
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL65111, HL65112, HL76852, P50HL065112, R24HL076852, HL76858, R24HL076858, P50HL065111)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
- Keywords
- meaning of life, scale development, psychometric properties, factor structure, convergent validity, discriminant validity, test-retest reliability, internal consistency, reference values, health psychology, behavioral medicine, health outcomes
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Ethnicity, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychometrics, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Behavior
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
