Developing and Validating the Senior Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMiLE) Scale

ABSTRACT

The Senior Meaning in Life Evaluation scale encompasses not only older adults’ personal motivation and growth but also the meaning for them in society and in their relationships: With this scale, we aimed to present their voices. A three-phase process was followed: The scale’s items were developed empirically from interviews of older adults; exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to test convergent and concurrent validity; and finally, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed. EFA resulted in 18 items grouped into 4 factors (i.e., proactive on life, overcoming emptiness, acceptance in life, and social contribution), which was supported by the CFA.

KEYWORDS:

• Meaning in life
• measurement
• scale validation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all participants in this study. Other researchers may contact authors regarding data, analysis methods, and other research materials for replication purposes. The study was not preregistered.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF-2017M3C1B607066722].