The Purpose-in-Life Scale (PILS): internal consistency reliability, concurrent validity and construct validity among Catholic priests in Italy

ABSTRACT

The Purpose in Life Scale was designed to provide a 12-item unidimensional measure of purpose in life employing a five-point Likert rating for each item. The present study supports the psychometric properties of the Italian translation of this instrument among 155 Catholic priests (mean age = 46 years, SD = 12.16). Internal consistency reliability generated an alpha coefficient of .90. The first factor generated by principal component analysis accounted for 49.5% of variance. Concurrent validity against the Purpose in Life Test was supported by a correlation of .63. Construct validity was supported by a correlation of .54 with the Satisfaction in Ministry Scale and by a correlation of −.51 with the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry. These properties commend the scale for future use among Catholic priests.

KEYWORDS:

• Purpose in Life Scale
• factor structure
• reliability
• construct validity
• concurrent validity
• Catholic priests

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Leslie J. Francis http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2946-9980

Ursula McKenna http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2625-7731