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Abstract
The trend in today's U.S. society is one of decreased membership within traditional civic/faith organizations and in particular within Roman Catholic women's religious organizations. These women are known particularly for their historic contribution to the U.S. social capital. Thus, there is a need to study the motivational factors and life satisfaction levels across the lifespan of women religious. The purpose of the current study was to develop and establish preliminary psychometrics for an instrument specifically designed to assess the life satisfaction levels of the various generations of women religious. Discussed are the stages of item development and the field-testing of the Life Satisfaction Scale for Apostolic Women Religious (LSSAWR; 50 items). An important finding is the generational differences on the LSSAWR based on participants' responses (N = 1,116). Overall, the results of this study suggest that the LSSAWR has the potential to identify levels of satisfaction with religious life cross three generations of apostolic women religious.