Student Leadership Measurement Library
The Life Engagement Test is designed to measure purpose in life, defined as the degree to which a person engages in activities that are meaningful to them.
Constructs Being Measured
How to Access and Cite
To access the resource, visit https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/psychology/pdf/scales/LET_Scale.pdf.
This is a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1-5, 1,“Strongly disagree” and 5,“Strongly agree”. Total score: Items are then summed, yielding a range from 6 to 30. Higher scores indicate greater levels of purpose in life.
Outcome Families
Programmatic Purpose-terms
Instrument Characteristics
6 Likert type questions
Applicable Grade Levels-terms
Supporting Research
Scheier, M. F., Wrosch, C., Baum, A., Cohen, S., Martire, L. M., Matthews, K. A., Schulz, R. & Zdaniuk, B. (2006). The Life Engagement Test: Assessing purpose in life. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 29(3), 291.
Available Languages
Rationale
Points to Consider
For more guidance on measuring student learning and best practices in adapting measurement tools to your contexts, check out the Portal page on Monitoring and Evaluation. You can also contact Alvin Vista (Knowledge Lead, Student Outcomes) and Robbie Dean (Director of Research) for specific questions.