Life Engagement and Purpose

Title

Life Engagement Test (LET)

Study

PMBC

Copyright Information

Available in the public domain.  A copy of the LET is accessible from Dr. Scheier’s webpage

Primary Reference

Scheier, M. F., Wrosch, C., Baum, A., Cohen, S., Martire, L. M., Matthews, K. A., et al. (2006). The Life Engagement Test: Assessing purpose in life. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 29(3), 291-298.

Purpose

To assess the extent to which individuals perceive their activities as being valuable and important.

Type of Measure

Established.

Similar Measures

Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being, Purpose in Life Scale

Description

Respondents use a 5-point Likert scale to rate how much they agree with self-descriptive statements about the purposefulness of life.

Scaling

1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree

Number of Items

6

Psychometrics

Scheier et al (2006) report psychometric data derived from several samples, including undergraduate students and adults with and without chronic illness:

• Internal consistency, Cronbach’s α:  range, 0.72 to 0.87
• Test-retest reliability (4 months):  range, 0.61 to 0.76

Internal consistency in PMBC (n = 193), Cronbach’s α = 0.79

Scoring

Reverse items: 1, 3, 5
Sum items 1R, 2, 3R, 4, 5R, 6

Variables

Total Life Engagement Score