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Development and Validation of the Perceived Life Significance Scale a
a
Rachel Hibberd M.A. & Brian Vandenberg Ph. D. a
University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA Accepted author version posted online: 13 Feb 2015.
Click for updates To cite this article: Rachel Hibberd M.A. & Brian Vandenberg Ph. D. (2015): Development and Validation of the Perceived Life Significance Scale, Death Studies, DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2014.958627 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2014.958627
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Development and Validation of the Perceived Life Significance Scale Rachel Hibberd, M.A.1,, Brian Vandenberg, Ph.D.1 1
University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Author contact information: Rachel Hibberd, M.A. University of Missouri-Saint Louis, 232 Stadler Hall, One University Boulevard, Saint Louis, MO 63132. E-mail: [email protected].
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KEYWORDS: Grief, bereavement, meaning in life, meaning-making, coping
Abstract A recent literature review of meaning and bereavement suggests a conceptual distinction between sense-making, or the integration of a loss with beliefs and narratives, and life significance, or perception of value associated with an aspect of one's life experience. The present study aims to develop and validate a new measure: the Perceived Life Significance Scale (PLSS). Exploratory (N=353) and confirmatory (N=483) factor analyses support three factors: active pursuit of goals and activities; emptiness/insignificance (reverse-scored); and receptivity to beauty in everyday life. The PLSS demonstrates convergent and discriminant validity with respect to general measures of meaning, negative affect, depression, and sense-making.
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE PERCEIVED LIFE SIGNIFICANCE SCALE Meaning comprises an important component of grief recovery and features prominently in theories of coping with stressful life events, yet has been notoriously difficult to define and operationalize (Park, 2010). A variety of cognitive and social-constructionist theories of coping have defined meaning in terms of the fit between situation-specific appraisals 1
and global belief systems (e.g., Davis, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Larson, 1998; Gillies & Niemeyer, 2006; Janoff-Bulman, 1992; Park and Folkman, 1997). Within each of these models, meaning is primarily conceptualized in terms of mourners’ efforts to “make sense,” whether by seeking explanations for the loss, appraising it as beneficial in unexpected ways, or changing one's beliefs about self and world to accommodate the fact of the loss. In contrast, a recent literature review identified a distinct conceptualization of
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meaning as life significance: the perception of value associated with a goal, relationship, or aspect of life experience that exists or is pursued in the present and future (Hibberd, 2013). As discussed in that review, several theoretical models of bereavement, as well as extant qualitative research, suggest that this aspect of meaning may be crucial to grief recovery, as individuals strive to identify what "matters" in the wake of a shattering loss. However, a psychometrically valid measure of life significance has not yet been developed. The aim of the present study was to develop and validate such a measure: the Perceived Life Significance Scale.
In the present paper, a relatively brief discussion of the hypothesized characteristics of life significance and its place in theoretical models of bereavement will be offered; for a more detailed conceptual discussion, the reader is referred to Hibberd (2013). Constructs and measures related to life significance will be reviewed to demonstrate the need for a novel measure, given the plethora of meaning-related measures already in existence. Finally, the specific goals of the present study with respect to demonstrating discriminant validity (vis-à-vis meaning as sense-making, as well as non-meaning-related constructs
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such as depression, positive and negative affect, and grief intensity) and convergent validity (vis-à-vis the higher-order construct of meaning) will be addressed.
LIFE SIGNIFICANCE IN GRIEF RECOVERY Life significance has been described as the "sake" for which people persist in difficult tasks; as the motivational element of well-being; and as a sense of appreciation for the
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beauty and value of everyday life (Baumeister, 1991; Antonovsky, 1987; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Qualitative research has identified life significance in the responses of bereaved individuals who describe finding meaning in activities, such as working to prevent gun violence (Armour, 2003); as well as those for whom meaning occurs in daily experiences of beauty or interpersonal connection (Wheeler, 2001). In contrast with meaning as sense-making, which involves mourners' efforts to develop coherent or positive narratives, beliefs, and appraisals, life significance is the sense of transcendental or existential value attached to any aspect of one's life that remains after a loss. It is the sense in which people are using meaning when they refer to something that “means a lot” to them; it matters in a fundamental, inherent way, apart from its implications for the coherence and logic of the world (Hibberd, 2013).
Qualitative accounts suggest that, like sense-making, life significance can be fundamentally altered in the wake of loss (Armour, 2003; Wheeler, 2001). For example, bereavement may entail the loss of a cherished role (e.g., mother, husband), the performance of which was freighted with life significance (Hershberger & Walsh, 1990). Alternatively, confrontation with death may impact a mourner's perception of the value of
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life--either by threatening the value of one's life and activities, as suggested by Terror Management Theory (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2004), or by increasing the perceived value of everyday life (Wheeler, 2001; Lykins et. al., 2007). In contrast with the sense-making aspect of meaning, which research suggests is an important predictive variable for some, but not all, bereaved individuals (Bonnanno et. al., 2004), it is difficult to imagine an individual navigating bereavement successfully without preserving or
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reconstructing a life significance. Indeed, life significance is conceptualized here as an important outcome in itself, consistent with a eudaimonic definition of well-being (e.g., Ryan & Deci, 2001).
Life significance is implicit in several theories of meaning-making in bereavement, though meaning has been more explicitly defined and operationalized in terms of “sensemaking” (Hibberd, 2013). Park and Folkman's (1997) theory of stress and coping emphasizes the role of sense-making in terms of reconciling event appraisals and global beliefs, briefly acknowledging the adjunctive role of “goals and values” as a component of meaning. Social constructivist models of grief describe post-bereavement narratives as contextual processes that include tacit, preverbal structures as well as the specific content of conscious cognition (Neimeyer, 2000). While life significance is implicit in such descriptions (presumably interwoven throughout the “deep structures” of preverbal meaning), coherence and integration, rather than felt significance, remain the primary outcome of interest (Gillies & Neimeyer, 2006; Holland, Currier, Coleman, & Neimeyer, 2010). It is certainly possible, even likely, that coherent, well-integrated narratives of loss, self, and world facilitates the experience of life significance for bereaved
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individuals. However, a valid measure of life significance itself is needed to empirically explore the relationships between narratives or beliefs (i.e., sense-making processes and outcomes) and the sense of existential value they impart for the individuals who hold them.
Life significance is, very specifically, conceptualized as a dimension of meaning--an
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experience that occurs at an existential level of analysis (i.e., as compared with phenomena that can be clearly described solely in terms of discrete combinations of cognitions, behaviors, or emotions; Schneider, 2008). Life significance, in particular, seems to defy such categorizations; it could be described in affective terms (e.g., the feelings associated with transcendent or valued experiences), as a cognition (e.g., the belief that an event is valuable), or as an action tendency (e.g., to continue to pursue the activity or experience despite challenges); however, none of these fully capture the “larger than oneself” transcendent quality of meaning. Indeed, this transcendent quality is what defines meaning as separate from other aspects of psychological well-being. Thus, a valid measure of life significance should be demonstrably discrepant from non-existential measures of well-being, such as positive/negative affect, depression, or grief intensity, and demonstrably convergent with measures of specifically existential phenomena (i.e., other measures of meaning).
HYPOTHESIZED SUBDIMENSIONS OF LIFE SIGNIFICANCE Two subdimensions of life significance are hypothesized, based on a review of qualitative accounts of meaning-making (see Hibberd, 2013). Specifically, active life
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significance is derived from intentional pursuit of and engagement with valued activities and goals; this is life significance as the “performative dimension” of meaning (Armour, 2003). Individuals find active life significance in the things they do. In contrast, receptive life significance involves a more passive appreciation of beautiful or special life experiences, as described by individuals who report a greater awareness of the value of everyday life after becoming aware of life's finitude (Wheeler, 2001). Individuals find
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receptive life significance in the things they experience. For example, an individual bereaved by suicide may find active life significance in an activity such as political advocacy for better access to mental health resources, and receptive life significance in waking up early to savor drinking coffee and watching the sunrise.
CONSTRUCTS SIMILAR TO "RECEPTIVE" LIFE SIGNIFICANCE Constructs and measures related to life significance exist, although no currently existing measure is both conceptually and psychometrically adequate as a proxy for life significance. One construct that has been closely linked with research surrounding meaning-making is posttraumatic growth, which includes a wide range of positive changes resulting from stressful life events (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). In some cases, this may include an enhanced awareness of the value of everyday life, a change reflected in the “Appreciation of Life” subscale of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Unfortunately, the subscale contains only three items, and as a result demonstrates unacceptably low internal consistency reliability. Additionally, each of the items is worded in terms of an increase in life appreciation since the event (e.g., “I can better appreciate each day”), which limits the ability of these items to measure
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appreciation of life as a dynamic variable, as well as longitudinal changes in appreciation over time.
Gratitude also relates to the appreciation of significant moments in one's presentday experience, particularly when it is conceptualized as “generalized gratitude” rather than gratitude towards a specific person (Bono, Emmons, & McCullough, 2004).
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Nevertheless, gratitude and life significance do not entirely overlap, conceptually speaking. Life significance refers to experiences that are felt to be inherently or transcendentally meaningful (Hibberd, 2013). That is, one may be grateful for the relief provided by sinking into the couch and watching television; however, most individuals would not describe this experience as one which “matters” to them in the overall scope of their lives (Baumeister, 1991). Neither appreciation of life nor gratitude is conceptually similar enough to life significance to serve as useful measurement proxies.
CONSTRUCTS SIMILAR TO "ACTIVE" LIFE SIGNIFICANCE Hardiness, a multidimensional construct developed to explain resilience following stressful life events, includes as one of its three subdimensions “commitment,” or the tendency to remain motivated and involved in relationships and activities rather than becoming alienated (Maddi, 1997). Commitment demonstrates partial conceptual overlap with life significance; to the extent that individuals are actively engaged in life activities and future goals, they experience progress towards valued outcomes as existentially significant (Hibberd, 2013).
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Unfortunately, current measures of hardiness are plagued by measurement problems, including poor criterion validity (Sinclair & Tetrick, 2000), uncertain discriminant validity (Funk, 1992) and unstable factor structure (Hull, Van Trueren, & Virnelli, 1987). Rather than accumulating an evidence base for one well-validated measure of hardiness, researchers have tended to develop successive versions, the specific content and scoring criteria of which are not publicly available (Maddi, 1987;
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Maddi, 1997). Further, a number of factor-analyses of hardiness measures point to solutions that do not conform to the three-factor model of hardiness (Hull, Van Treuren, & Virnelli, 1987; Funk, 1992; Sinclair & Tetrick, 2000), rendering specific measurement of the commitment subdimension difficult. Thus, while the concepts of commitment and hardiness are relevant to life significance, existing measures are not psychometrically adequate as a measure of life significance.
Sense of coherence is conceptually similar to hardiness, with three subdimensions: coherence, controllability, and meaningfulness (Antonovsky, 1987). Coherence and controllability both approximate sense-making, in the context of the present review. The meaningfulness subdimension, in contrast, is conceptually similar to active life significance. This latter subscale measures the extent to which the demands posed by daily living are viewed as “challenges, worthy of investment and engagement (Antonovsky, 1987; p. 19).” The most commonly used measure of sense of coherence, the Life Orientation Questionnaire (typically abbreviated SOC-29) has demonstrated internal consistency reliability, as well as convergent, predictive, and discriminatory validity as a unidimensional measure (see Eriksson & Lindstrom, 2005, for a review). However,
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individual subscales of the measure are not psychometrically valid for independent use. A number of factor analyses have supported a unidimensional model of sense of coherence (Antonovsky, 1993; Frenz, Carey, & Jorgensen, 1993), and other studies have supported various multidimensional structures that do not correspond to Antonovsky’s subscales (Fiorentino, 1989; Sandell, Blomberg, & Lazar, 1998). Thus, as with hardiness, the sense of coherence construct is conceptually informative but does not yield an appropriate
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measure of life significance.
Another related construct, purpose in life, contains aspects of both active life significance and meaning as sense-making. Purpose in life was described by Frankl (1955), a concentration camp survivor, as a central reason for living despite the suffering and cruelty inherent in life; in more recent terms, purpose has been described as a “central, self-organizing life aim” (Kashdan & McKnight, 2009, p. 304). For example, a person might identify completion of a lifelong project, parenting of children, or communicating an idea as constitutive of purpose in life. By definition, these priorities are imbued with life significance, at least in the abstract; however, one's ability to identify salient goals and purposes is not the same as the feeling of significance derived from their pursuit. Thus, purpose in life could be said to represent a framework within which significance is pursued, or a narrative from which significance is derived. However, one might imagine individuals experience life significance, even the hypothesized active life significance, from activities and experiences that are not connected with an explicitly defined purpose in life. For example, some individuals may derive life significance from activities that are performed every day, with no expectation of linear progress (e.g., cleaning duties
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performed by Zen monks), or from an impulsive act that occurs independent of larger organizing goals (e.g., stopping to help a stranded motorist). Similarly, one could imagine an individual who is acutely aware of his or her perceived life purpose, but experiences no life significance associated with it due to intense anxiety, behavioral paralysis, or a perception of having failed in its pursuit. In short, the cognitive context of purpose in life (i.e., its function in meaning as sense-making) is hypothesized to be separable from the
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life significance associated with it, but this distinction remains untested. A central reason for developing the Perceived Life Significance Scale is to examine just this type of question.
GOALS OF THE PRESENT STUDY The primary goal of the present study is to assess the reliability and convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity of a new measure of life significance, the Perceived Life Significance Scale. As with any measure, the PLSS should demonstrate stronger associations with constructs that are conceptually similar than with constructs that are conceptually distinct (DeVellis, 2011). In particular, it will be important to demonstrate that variance in PLSS scores is not reducible simply to differences in affective wellbeing. Other measures of meaning have been criticized on this ground, with some authors contending that they act merely as a proxy for negative emotionality (Dyck, 1987). More broadly, the onus has been placed on proponents of a eudaimonic model of well-being (i.e., one that includes meaning as central to its definition of the good life; Ryan & Deci, 2001) to demonstrate that meaning holds specific predictive validity and cannot be reduced to the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain (Ryff & Singer, 1998; King,
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Hicks, Krull, & Del Gaiso, 2006; King & Napa, 1998). In the present study, the PLSS is expected to demonstrate stronger associations with general measures of meaning than with measures of positive and negative affect, depression, and grief intensity.
If the PLSS demonstrates that it is more closely related to meaning than to unrelated constructs such as positive affect and depression, its status as a measure of a meaning-
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related construct will be supported. However, to provide additional evidence that the PLSS measures life significance specifically, it will also need to demonstrate discriminant validity with respect to sense-making. As discussed, life significance is conceptually distinct from other major conceptualizations of meaning, all of which center around individuals’ ability to construct coherent, positive narratives of their lives and/or loss event, or “make sense” (Janoff-Bulman, 1992; Davis et. al, 1998; Frankl, 1955; Neimeyer, 2001). However, simply examining the strength of the association between the PLSS and measures of sense-making may not be the best test of discriminant validity. As in the example of purpose in life, sense and significance are likely to be related to one another in complex, reciprocally causative ways, possibly resulting in a high correlation despite conceptual distinctions (Hibberd, 2013). In the present study, joint confirmatory factor analysis of PLSS and sense-making items was used to examine the factor structure underlying these items, with the expectation that a two-factor model will demonstrate better fit (thus supporting the discriminant validity of the PLSS from sense-making).
Finally, the criterion validity of the PLSS was examined with respect to participation in social roles, which are likely to represent important sources of life significance
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(Baumeister, 2001). When few significant roles remain after a significant other dies, mourners report more intense grief and less purpose in life (Hershberger & Walsh, 1990). In the present study, it is expected that participants with fewer role involvements will score lower on the PLSS than participants with a greater number of role involvements.
METHOD
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Plss Item Development Preliminary items for the measure were generated in two ways. First, an initial pool of items were constructed based on the theoretical considerations outlined by Hibberd (2013), as well as additional theoretical and empirical perspectives that include Self Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985); materialism and life goals (Kasser, 2002); and flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) as well as qualitative work describing mourners’ experiences of finding significance (Armour, 2003; Wheeler, 2001). Second, additional items were generated based on qualitative data gleaned from four focus groups of bereaved adults (N=31). This procedure was selected to help ensure that item wording resonated with the lived experience of everyday people, as well as to ensure a sufficient breadth of item content (Neimeyer, Hogan & Laurie, 2008). Given the inherent difficulty of quantifying an abstract phenomenon such as life significance (Schneider, 2008) the use of a mixed-methods design (e.g., qualitative data derived from focus groups for item development, followed by quantitative analysis of scale psychometrics) was judged epistemologically preferable to a purely quantitative design.
In the present study, two focus groups were comprised of primarily older adults with
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mixed types of loss; one group was comprised of survivors of suicide; and one group was comprised of bereaved parents. In each group, participants were asked a series of questions about their bereavement experiences, the role of meaning in their recovery, and the types of experiences, activities, relationships, goals, beliefs, and values perceived as “meaningful” in their lives. Given the limited scope and goals of this qualitative analysis, neither a formal coding strategy, nor multiple independent coders were employed. Rather,
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informal deductive thematic analysis was employed by the principal investigator to identify patterns in participant responses that were relevant to hypothesized subdimensions (active and receptive life significance, respectively), and specific wording used by participants was then incorporated into putative PLSS items (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURES Participants for quantitative validation of the PLSS were recruited from two sources: advertisements posted to community support websites for bereaved individuals (N=353), and the undergraduate research participant pool at a public, Midwest university (N=483). Participants were eligible for the study if they were eighteen years or older and had experienced the death of loved one within the past ten years.
Three hundred and twenty-two participants (91%) in the community sample identified as Caucasian, 6 (2%) identified as African-American, 8 (3%) identified as Latino/a, 8 (2%) identified as Asian, and 12 (4%) identified as another ethnicity. The community sample was composed of 330 (96%) women, with a mean age of 45
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(SD=12.3). One hundred and eighty-four participants (52%) were married or partnered, 74 (21%) were widowed, 37 (11%) were divorced or separated, and 57 (16%) were single. In terms of religious affiliation, 165 (47%) identified as Protestant or Nondenominational Christian, 90 (26%) as Catholic, 73 (22%) as atheist or agnostic, and 20 (9%) identified with another religious affiliation.
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In the student sample, three hundred and sixty-six (66%) identified as Caucasian, 134 (28%) identified as African-American, 14 (3%) identified as Latino/a, 17 (3%) identified as Asian, and 11 (3%) as another ethnicity. The student sample was composed of 359 (75%) women, with a mean age of 23 (SD=7.6). Ninety-three participants (14%) were married or partnered, 17 (4%) were divorced (4%), 365 (76%) were single, and none were widowed. In terms of religious affiliation, 241 (50%) identified as Protestant or Nondenominational Christian, 110 (23%) as Catholic, 71 (15%) as atheist or agnostic, and 34 (7%) identified with another religious affiliation. Loss characteristics of each sample, including cause of death, relationship to deceased, age of deceased, number of prior losses, closeness to deceased, and time since loss, as well as age and religiousness of respondent, are given in Table 1.
Following the informed consent, all participants completed the measures described below, including the initial 48-item pool for the Perceived Life Significance Scale (statistics reported for the 19-item final scale are derived from this larger item pool). Participants were instructed to answer study questions with the most distressing loss of the past ten years in mind. Student participants were offered extra credit, while
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participants in the community sample were offered the option to participate in a gift certificate raffle.
MEASURES Demographic Questionnaire. Each participant completed a questionnaire concerning age, gender, ethnicity, religious
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affiliation, time since the loss, cause of death, participant’s relationship to the deceased, and several role involvements (parent to adult children; parent to minor children; married/partnered; full or part-time employee, volunteer, caregiver, or student).
Perceived Life Significance Scale. All participants were administered an initial pool of 48 potential PLSS items, 19 of which were retained for the final PLSS scale (see Appendix A for retained items; see PLSS Item Selection section for details as to the criteria for item retention; see Results section for psychometric properties of the final scale).
Life Orientation Questionnaire. The higher-order construct of meaning was measured using the 29-item version of the Life Orientation Questionnaire (SOC-29) a measure of sense of coherence (described above). The SOC-29 has demonstrated good criterion, predictive, concurrent and discriminant validity, and internal consistency has ranged from .70 to .95 across a number of studies (Eriksson & Lindstrom, 2007).
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Meaning In Life Questionnaire. Meaning as a higher-order construct was also measured using the Presence subscale of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ-P), which the authors describe as "a measure of "the sense made of, and significance felt regarding, the nature of one’s being and existence (Steger et al., 2006, p. 81)." The MLQ has demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity (Steger et al., 2006). Despite containing only five items, the
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Presence subscale has demonstrated acceptable reliability (α=.86).
Positive And Negative Affect Schedule. Positive and negative affect were measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), which consists of two 10-item subscales designed to measure positive and negative affective states (Watson et al, 1988). Participants were instructed to complete PANAS items with respect to how they feel “generally, on average.” The PANAS demonstrates good internal consistency reliability (α=0.81 for positive affect and α=.88 for negative affect; Watson et al, 1988).
Center For Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Symptoms of depression were assessed using the 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10; Kohout et al., 1993). The original 20-item CESD is one of the most widely used measures of depressive symptomatology and has well-established validity and reliability. The CESD-10 has demonstrated reliability and validity comparable to its longer counterpart, with α=.92 (Kohout et al., 1993).
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Texas Revised Inventory Of Grief. Grief intensity was measured using the 13-item Present Feelings subscale of the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG), one of the most commonly used measures of grief. The Present Feelings subscale has demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability (α=.89; Faschingbauer, 1981).
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World Assumptions Scale. Sense-making was assessed using the World Assumptions Scale (WAS), the most commonly used measure of global beliefs affected by stressful life events. The WAS is organized into eight subscales, assessing three primary schemas theorized by JanoffBulman (1992) to play an important mediating role in the impact of stressful events: benevolence, world meaning, and self-worth. The items are rated on a six-point scale with endpoints of 1 (Strongly disagree) and 6 (Strongly Agree). The WAS has demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability, with alpha coefficients for the eight subscales ranging from .68 to .86 (Janoff-Bulman, 1989). The construct validity of the WAS has been supported by a number of studies (Schwartzberg & Janoff-Bulman, 1991; Elklit, Shevlin, Solomon, & Dekel, 2007; Matthews & Marwit, 2004).
Fulfillment. Participants were asked: “Please rate how fulfilled or satisfied you feel by each of the following areas of your life, using the following scale” and provided with endpoints ranging from 1 ("Not at all fulfilled") to 7 ("Completely fulfilled"). Total fulfillment was
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then summed across the eight areas assessed (work, relationships, hobbies, community, noticing beauty, helping, living according to values, religious/spiritual).
Integration Of Stressful Life Experiences Scale (ISLES). The ISLES, a measure of the integration and coherence of narratives following a stressful event (Holland et al., 2010), was administered to all participants. However, it was not
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used in any of the analyses presented here.
RESULTS Quantitative analyses were conducted using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 19.0. The Mardia test of multivariate abnormality indicated significant multivariate kurtosis for the PLSS items in the student sample (Mardia=470.19, criterion of 101.52); thus, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses utilized methods of estimation that are robust to violations of normality.
Sample Strategy. The use of two independent samples (community bereaved adults and bereaved students) allowed for a more valid hypothesis testing process and stronger confirmation of the factor structure and validity of the PLSS (DeVellis, 2011). The community sample was used for initial analyses to inform PLSS item selection decisions, including exploratory factor analysis and individual item statistics. The student sample, collected six months later, was used for confirmatory analyses of the 19-item PLSS scale (constructed of items selected from the initial 48-item pool, which was administered to the students in its
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entirety), as well as discriminant validity of the PLSS with respect to a measure of sensemaking. Correlations between the PLSS and other measures (to further assess convergent and discriminant validity), as well as inter-item reliability, were found to be highly similar across the two samples; thus, these statistics are reported for the combined student and community samples (N=836).
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Missing Data Strategy. Participants in both the community sample (N=67) and student sample (N=43) who did not complete at least the demographics questionnaire and the majority of PLSS items (i.e., those who exited the survey soon after beginning it) were removed from the study. In both samples, a conservative missing data strategy was employed in that total scores were calculated only for participants who completed at least 95% of that measure. For the exploratory factor analysis (community sample), a pairwise missing data strategy was adopted and the factor solution for the final item pool was cross-checked against a solution generated using listwise deletion of missing cases. For the confirmatory analyses (student sample), Little's MCAR test indicated patterns in the missing data, contraindicating listwise deletion; thus, missing PLSS and WAS values were estimated using the Expectation-Maximization algorithm.
Plss Item Selection. Item selection decisions and exploratory analyses were performed using the community sample. Of the initial 48-item pool of potential PLSS items, 18 were discarded based on item skew and kurtosis and redundancy of item content. Principal axis factoring with
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oblique (promax) rotation was used to determine the factor structure underlying the remaining pool of 30 items. Three factors were retained based on the scree plot and eigenvalues. Items with loading greater than .5 on any factor while not loading greater than .3 were retained through several additional item pools, resulting in 19 final PLSS items.
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A final exploratory analysis was performed to evaluate the factor structure and loadings of the final PLSS items, using the same extraction method, rotation, and missing data strategy described above. All validity tests (determinant, Bartlett's sphericity, KaiserMeyer-Olkin test) were acceptable (Pett, Lackey, & Sullivan, 2003). The rotated solution of this final factor analysis demonstrated the same three factors as the initial solution. The first factor includes items corresponding with the hypothesized subdimension of active life significance, as described above; the second factor contained all reverse-scored items representing the perceived absence of significance; the third factor corresponds with the hypothesized subdimension of receptive life significance. All items demonstrated acceptable rotated factor loadings (see Table 2). These three factors were named Active, Negative, and Receptive Life Significance.
Internal Consistency. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated using a combined sample of community and student participants (N=836). The total PLSS score demonstrated excellent reliability (α=.95). Of the three PLSS subscale scores (corresponding to the three factors described above), Active Significance (α=.95) and Negative Significance (α=.93) both
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demonstrated excellent reliability, while Receptive Significance (α=.70) demonstrated adequate reliability (Nunnally, 1978).
Stability Of PLSS Factor Structure. The three-factor structure described above was subjected to a confirmatory analysis using the student sample (Figure 1). Brown's (2006) asymptotically-free distribution estimation
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method was used due to its robustness to multivariate abnormality. Fit measures robust to multivariate abnormality, large sample sizes, and varying methods of estimation were examined, including a measure of absolute fit (standardized root mean square residual; SRMR) and a parsimony-corrected fit index (root mean square error of approximation; RMSEA), as recommended by Brown (2006). Comparative fit indices were not evaluated due to a low RMSEA for the null model (Kenny & McCoach, 2003).
Chi-square was statistically significant, χ2=323.58, df=149, p
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Development and Validation of the Perceived Life Significance Scale a
a
Rachel Hibberd M.A. & Brian Vandenberg Ph. D. a
University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA Accepted author version posted online: 13 Feb 2015.
Click for updates To cite this article: Rachel Hibberd M.A. & Brian Vandenberg Ph. D. (2015): Development and Validation of the Perceived Life Significance Scale, Death Studies, DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2014.958627 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2014.958627
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Development and Validation of the Perceived Life Significance Scale Rachel Hibberd, M.A.1,, Brian Vandenberg, Ph.D.1 1
University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Author contact information: Rachel Hibberd, M.A. University of Missouri-Saint Louis, 232 Stadler Hall, One University Boulevard, Saint Louis, MO 63132. E-mail: [email protected].
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KEYWORDS: Grief, bereavement, meaning in life, meaning-making, coping
Abstract A recent literature review of meaning and bereavement suggests a conceptual distinction between sense-making, or the integration of a loss with beliefs and narratives, and life significance, or perception of value associated with an aspect of one's life experience. The present study aims to develop and validate a new measure: the Perceived Life Significance Scale (PLSS). Exploratory (N=353) and confirmatory (N=483) factor analyses support three factors: active pursuit of goals and activities; emptiness/insignificance (reverse-scored); and receptivity to beauty in everyday life. The PLSS demonstrates convergent and discriminant validity with respect to general measures of meaning, negative affect, depression, and sense-making.
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE PERCEIVED LIFE SIGNIFICANCE SCALE Meaning comprises an important component of grief recovery and features prominently in theories of coping with stressful life events, yet has been notoriously difficult to define and operationalize (Park, 2010). A variety of cognitive and social-constructionist theories of coping have defined meaning in terms of the fit between situation-specific appraisals 1
and global belief systems (e.g., Davis, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Larson, 1998; Gillies & Niemeyer, 2006; Janoff-Bulman, 1992; Park and Folkman, 1997). Within each of these models, meaning is primarily conceptualized in terms of mourners’ efforts to “make sense,” whether by seeking explanations for the loss, appraising it as beneficial in unexpected ways, or changing one's beliefs about self and world to accommodate the fact of the loss. In contrast, a recent literature review identified a distinct conceptualization of
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meaning as life significance: the perception of value associated with a goal, relationship, or aspect of life experience that exists or is pursued in the present and future (Hibberd, 2013). As discussed in that review, several theoretical models of bereavement, as well as extant qualitative research, suggest that this aspect of meaning may be crucial to grief recovery, as individuals strive to identify what "matters" in the wake of a shattering loss. However, a psychometrically valid measure of life significance has not yet been developed. The aim of the present study was to develop and validate such a measure: the Perceived Life Significance Scale.
In the present paper, a relatively brief discussion of the hypothesized characteristics of life significance and its place in theoretical models of bereavement will be offered; for a more detailed conceptual discussion, the reader is referred to Hibberd (2013). Constructs and measures related to life significance will be reviewed to demonstrate the need for a novel measure, given the plethora of meaning-related measures already in existence. Finally, the specific goals of the present study with respect to demonstrating discriminant validity (vis-à-vis meaning as sense-making, as well as non-meaning-related constructs
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such as depression, positive and negative affect, and grief intensity) and convergent validity (vis-à-vis the higher-order construct of meaning) will be addressed.
LIFE SIGNIFICANCE IN GRIEF RECOVERY Life significance has been described as the "sake" for which people persist in difficult tasks; as the motivational element of well-being; and as a sense of appreciation for the
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beauty and value of everyday life (Baumeister, 1991; Antonovsky, 1987; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Qualitative research has identified life significance in the responses of bereaved individuals who describe finding meaning in activities, such as working to prevent gun violence (Armour, 2003); as well as those for whom meaning occurs in daily experiences of beauty or interpersonal connection (Wheeler, 2001). In contrast with meaning as sense-making, which involves mourners' efforts to develop coherent or positive narratives, beliefs, and appraisals, life significance is the sense of transcendental or existential value attached to any aspect of one's life that remains after a loss. It is the sense in which people are using meaning when they refer to something that “means a lot” to them; it matters in a fundamental, inherent way, apart from its implications for the coherence and logic of the world (Hibberd, 2013).
Qualitative accounts suggest that, like sense-making, life significance can be fundamentally altered in the wake of loss (Armour, 2003; Wheeler, 2001). For example, bereavement may entail the loss of a cherished role (e.g., mother, husband), the performance of which was freighted with life significance (Hershberger & Walsh, 1990). Alternatively, confrontation with death may impact a mourner's perception of the value of
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life--either by threatening the value of one's life and activities, as suggested by Terror Management Theory (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2004), or by increasing the perceived value of everyday life (Wheeler, 2001; Lykins et. al., 2007). In contrast with the sense-making aspect of meaning, which research suggests is an important predictive variable for some, but not all, bereaved individuals (Bonnanno et. al., 2004), it is difficult to imagine an individual navigating bereavement successfully without preserving or
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reconstructing a life significance. Indeed, life significance is conceptualized here as an important outcome in itself, consistent with a eudaimonic definition of well-being (e.g., Ryan & Deci, 2001).
Life significance is implicit in several theories of meaning-making in bereavement, though meaning has been more explicitly defined and operationalized in terms of “sensemaking” (Hibberd, 2013). Park and Folkman's (1997) theory of stress and coping emphasizes the role of sense-making in terms of reconciling event appraisals and global beliefs, briefly acknowledging the adjunctive role of “goals and values” as a component of meaning. Social constructivist models of grief describe post-bereavement narratives as contextual processes that include tacit, preverbal structures as well as the specific content of conscious cognition (Neimeyer, 2000). While life significance is implicit in such descriptions (presumably interwoven throughout the “deep structures” of preverbal meaning), coherence and integration, rather than felt significance, remain the primary outcome of interest (Gillies & Neimeyer, 2006; Holland, Currier, Coleman, & Neimeyer, 2010). It is certainly possible, even likely, that coherent, well-integrated narratives of loss, self, and world facilitates the experience of life significance for bereaved
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individuals. However, a valid measure of life significance itself is needed to empirically explore the relationships between narratives or beliefs (i.e., sense-making processes and outcomes) and the sense of existential value they impart for the individuals who hold them.
Life significance is, very specifically, conceptualized as a dimension of meaning--an
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experience that occurs at an existential level of analysis (i.e., as compared with phenomena that can be clearly described solely in terms of discrete combinations of cognitions, behaviors, or emotions; Schneider, 2008). Life significance, in particular, seems to defy such categorizations; it could be described in affective terms (e.g., the feelings associated with transcendent or valued experiences), as a cognition (e.g., the belief that an event is valuable), or as an action tendency (e.g., to continue to pursue the activity or experience despite challenges); however, none of these fully capture the “larger than oneself” transcendent quality of meaning. Indeed, this transcendent quality is what defines meaning as separate from other aspects of psychological well-being. Thus, a valid measure of life significance should be demonstrably discrepant from non-existential measures of well-being, such as positive/negative affect, depression, or grief intensity, and demonstrably convergent with measures of specifically existential phenomena (i.e., other measures of meaning).
HYPOTHESIZED SUBDIMENSIONS OF LIFE SIGNIFICANCE Two subdimensions of life significance are hypothesized, based on a review of qualitative accounts of meaning-making (see Hibberd, 2013). Specifically, active life
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significance is derived from intentional pursuit of and engagement with valued activities and goals; this is life significance as the “performative dimension” of meaning (Armour, 2003). Individuals find active life significance in the things they do. In contrast, receptive life significance involves a more passive appreciation of beautiful or special life experiences, as described by individuals who report a greater awareness of the value of everyday life after becoming aware of life's finitude (Wheeler, 2001). Individuals find
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receptive life significance in the things they experience. For example, an individual bereaved by suicide may find active life significance in an activity such as political advocacy for better access to mental health resources, and receptive life significance in waking up early to savor drinking coffee and watching the sunrise.
CONSTRUCTS SIMILAR TO "RECEPTIVE" LIFE SIGNIFICANCE Constructs and measures related to life significance exist, although no currently existing measure is both conceptually and psychometrically adequate as a proxy for life significance. One construct that has been closely linked with research surrounding meaning-making is posttraumatic growth, which includes a wide range of positive changes resulting from stressful life events (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). In some cases, this may include an enhanced awareness of the value of everyday life, a change reflected in the “Appreciation of Life” subscale of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Unfortunately, the subscale contains only three items, and as a result demonstrates unacceptably low internal consistency reliability. Additionally, each of the items is worded in terms of an increase in life appreciation since the event (e.g., “I can better appreciate each day”), which limits the ability of these items to measure
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appreciation of life as a dynamic variable, as well as longitudinal changes in appreciation over time.
Gratitude also relates to the appreciation of significant moments in one's presentday experience, particularly when it is conceptualized as “generalized gratitude” rather than gratitude towards a specific person (Bono, Emmons, & McCullough, 2004).
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Nevertheless, gratitude and life significance do not entirely overlap, conceptually speaking. Life significance refers to experiences that are felt to be inherently or transcendentally meaningful (Hibberd, 2013). That is, one may be grateful for the relief provided by sinking into the couch and watching television; however, most individuals would not describe this experience as one which “matters” to them in the overall scope of their lives (Baumeister, 1991). Neither appreciation of life nor gratitude is conceptually similar enough to life significance to serve as useful measurement proxies.
CONSTRUCTS SIMILAR TO "ACTIVE" LIFE SIGNIFICANCE Hardiness, a multidimensional construct developed to explain resilience following stressful life events, includes as one of its three subdimensions “commitment,” or the tendency to remain motivated and involved in relationships and activities rather than becoming alienated (Maddi, 1997). Commitment demonstrates partial conceptual overlap with life significance; to the extent that individuals are actively engaged in life activities and future goals, they experience progress towards valued outcomes as existentially significant (Hibberd, 2013).
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Unfortunately, current measures of hardiness are plagued by measurement problems, including poor criterion validity (Sinclair & Tetrick, 2000), uncertain discriminant validity (Funk, 1992) and unstable factor structure (Hull, Van Trueren, & Virnelli, 1987). Rather than accumulating an evidence base for one well-validated measure of hardiness, researchers have tended to develop successive versions, the specific content and scoring criteria of which are not publicly available (Maddi, 1987;
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Maddi, 1997). Further, a number of factor-analyses of hardiness measures point to solutions that do not conform to the three-factor model of hardiness (Hull, Van Treuren, & Virnelli, 1987; Funk, 1992; Sinclair & Tetrick, 2000), rendering specific measurement of the commitment subdimension difficult. Thus, while the concepts of commitment and hardiness are relevant to life significance, existing measures are not psychometrically adequate as a measure of life significance.
Sense of coherence is conceptually similar to hardiness, with three subdimensions: coherence, controllability, and meaningfulness (Antonovsky, 1987). Coherence and controllability both approximate sense-making, in the context of the present review. The meaningfulness subdimension, in contrast, is conceptually similar to active life significance. This latter subscale measures the extent to which the demands posed by daily living are viewed as “challenges, worthy of investment and engagement (Antonovsky, 1987; p. 19).” The most commonly used measure of sense of coherence, the Life Orientation Questionnaire (typically abbreviated SOC-29) has demonstrated internal consistency reliability, as well as convergent, predictive, and discriminatory validity as a unidimensional measure (see Eriksson & Lindstrom, 2005, for a review). However,
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individual subscales of the measure are not psychometrically valid for independent use. A number of factor analyses have supported a unidimensional model of sense of coherence (Antonovsky, 1993; Frenz, Carey, & Jorgensen, 1993), and other studies have supported various multidimensional structures that do not correspond to Antonovsky’s subscales (Fiorentino, 1989; Sandell, Blomberg, & Lazar, 1998). Thus, as with hardiness, the sense of coherence construct is conceptually informative but does not yield an appropriate
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measure of life significance.
Another related construct, purpose in life, contains aspects of both active life significance and meaning as sense-making. Purpose in life was described by Frankl (1955), a concentration camp survivor, as a central reason for living despite the suffering and cruelty inherent in life; in more recent terms, purpose has been described as a “central, self-organizing life aim” (Kashdan & McKnight, 2009, p. 304). For example, a person might identify completion of a lifelong project, parenting of children, or communicating an idea as constitutive of purpose in life. By definition, these priorities are imbued with life significance, at least in the abstract; however, one's ability to identify salient goals and purposes is not the same as the feeling of significance derived from their pursuit. Thus, purpose in life could be said to represent a framework within which significance is pursued, or a narrative from which significance is derived. However, one might imagine individuals experience life significance, even the hypothesized active life significance, from activities and experiences that are not connected with an explicitly defined purpose in life. For example, some individuals may derive life significance from activities that are performed every day, with no expectation of linear progress (e.g., cleaning duties
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performed by Zen monks), or from an impulsive act that occurs independent of larger organizing goals (e.g., stopping to help a stranded motorist). Similarly, one could imagine an individual who is acutely aware of his or her perceived life purpose, but experiences no life significance associated with it due to intense anxiety, behavioral paralysis, or a perception of having failed in its pursuit. In short, the cognitive context of purpose in life (i.e., its function in meaning as sense-making) is hypothesized to be separable from the
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life significance associated with it, but this distinction remains untested. A central reason for developing the Perceived Life Significance Scale is to examine just this type of question.
GOALS OF THE PRESENT STUDY The primary goal of the present study is to assess the reliability and convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity of a new measure of life significance, the Perceived Life Significance Scale. As with any measure, the PLSS should demonstrate stronger associations with constructs that are conceptually similar than with constructs that are conceptually distinct (DeVellis, 2011). In particular, it will be important to demonstrate that variance in PLSS scores is not reducible simply to differences in affective wellbeing. Other measures of meaning have been criticized on this ground, with some authors contending that they act merely as a proxy for negative emotionality (Dyck, 1987). More broadly, the onus has been placed on proponents of a eudaimonic model of well-being (i.e., one that includes meaning as central to its definition of the good life; Ryan & Deci, 2001) to demonstrate that meaning holds specific predictive validity and cannot be reduced to the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain (Ryff & Singer, 1998; King,
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Hicks, Krull, & Del Gaiso, 2006; King & Napa, 1998). In the present study, the PLSS is expected to demonstrate stronger associations with general measures of meaning than with measures of positive and negative affect, depression, and grief intensity.
If the PLSS demonstrates that it is more closely related to meaning than to unrelated constructs such as positive affect and depression, its status as a measure of a meaning-
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related construct will be supported. However, to provide additional evidence that the PLSS measures life significance specifically, it will also need to demonstrate discriminant validity with respect to sense-making. As discussed, life significance is conceptually distinct from other major conceptualizations of meaning, all of which center around individuals’ ability to construct coherent, positive narratives of their lives and/or loss event, or “make sense” (Janoff-Bulman, 1992; Davis et. al, 1998; Frankl, 1955; Neimeyer, 2001). However, simply examining the strength of the association between the PLSS and measures of sense-making may not be the best test of discriminant validity. As in the example of purpose in life, sense and significance are likely to be related to one another in complex, reciprocally causative ways, possibly resulting in a high correlation despite conceptual distinctions (Hibberd, 2013). In the present study, joint confirmatory factor analysis of PLSS and sense-making items was used to examine the factor structure underlying these items, with the expectation that a two-factor model will demonstrate better fit (thus supporting the discriminant validity of the PLSS from sense-making).
Finally, the criterion validity of the PLSS was examined with respect to participation in social roles, which are likely to represent important sources of life significance
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(Baumeister, 2001). When few significant roles remain after a significant other dies, mourners report more intense grief and less purpose in life (Hershberger & Walsh, 1990). In the present study, it is expected that participants with fewer role involvements will score lower on the PLSS than participants with a greater number of role involvements.
METHOD
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Plss Item Development Preliminary items for the measure were generated in two ways. First, an initial pool of items were constructed based on the theoretical considerations outlined by Hibberd (2013), as well as additional theoretical and empirical perspectives that include Self Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985); materialism and life goals (Kasser, 2002); and flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) as well as qualitative work describing mourners’ experiences of finding significance (Armour, 2003; Wheeler, 2001). Second, additional items were generated based on qualitative data gleaned from four focus groups of bereaved adults (N=31). This procedure was selected to help ensure that item wording resonated with the lived experience of everyday people, as well as to ensure a sufficient breadth of item content (Neimeyer, Hogan & Laurie, 2008). Given the inherent difficulty of quantifying an abstract phenomenon such as life significance (Schneider, 2008) the use of a mixed-methods design (e.g., qualitative data derived from focus groups for item development, followed by quantitative analysis of scale psychometrics) was judged epistemologically preferable to a purely quantitative design.
In the present study, two focus groups were comprised of primarily older adults with
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mixed types of loss; one group was comprised of survivors of suicide; and one group was comprised of bereaved parents. In each group, participants were asked a series of questions about their bereavement experiences, the role of meaning in their recovery, and the types of experiences, activities, relationships, goals, beliefs, and values perceived as “meaningful” in their lives. Given the limited scope and goals of this qualitative analysis, neither a formal coding strategy, nor multiple independent coders were employed. Rather,
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informal deductive thematic analysis was employed by the principal investigator to identify patterns in participant responses that were relevant to hypothesized subdimensions (active and receptive life significance, respectively), and specific wording used by participants was then incorporated into putative PLSS items (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURES Participants for quantitative validation of the PLSS were recruited from two sources: advertisements posted to community support websites for bereaved individuals (N=353), and the undergraduate research participant pool at a public, Midwest university (N=483). Participants were eligible for the study if they were eighteen years or older and had experienced the death of loved one within the past ten years.
Three hundred and twenty-two participants (91%) in the community sample identified as Caucasian, 6 (2%) identified as African-American, 8 (3%) identified as Latino/a, 8 (2%) identified as Asian, and 12 (4%) identified as another ethnicity. The community sample was composed of 330 (96%) women, with a mean age of 45
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(SD=12.3). One hundred and eighty-four participants (52%) were married or partnered, 74 (21%) were widowed, 37 (11%) were divorced or separated, and 57 (16%) were single. In terms of religious affiliation, 165 (47%) identified as Protestant or Nondenominational Christian, 90 (26%) as Catholic, 73 (22%) as atheist or agnostic, and 20 (9%) identified with another religious affiliation.
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In the student sample, three hundred and sixty-six (66%) identified as Caucasian, 134 (28%) identified as African-American, 14 (3%) identified as Latino/a, 17 (3%) identified as Asian, and 11 (3%) as another ethnicity. The student sample was composed of 359 (75%) women, with a mean age of 23 (SD=7.6). Ninety-three participants (14%) were married or partnered, 17 (4%) were divorced (4%), 365 (76%) were single, and none were widowed. In terms of religious affiliation, 241 (50%) identified as Protestant or Nondenominational Christian, 110 (23%) as Catholic, 71 (15%) as atheist or agnostic, and 34 (7%) identified with another religious affiliation. Loss characteristics of each sample, including cause of death, relationship to deceased, age of deceased, number of prior losses, closeness to deceased, and time since loss, as well as age and religiousness of respondent, are given in Table 1.
Following the informed consent, all participants completed the measures described below, including the initial 48-item pool for the Perceived Life Significance Scale (statistics reported for the 19-item final scale are derived from this larger item pool). Participants were instructed to answer study questions with the most distressing loss of the past ten years in mind. Student participants were offered extra credit, while
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participants in the community sample were offered the option to participate in a gift certificate raffle.
MEASURES Demographic Questionnaire. Each participant completed a questionnaire concerning age, gender, ethnicity, religious
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affiliation, time since the loss, cause of death, participant’s relationship to the deceased, and several role involvements (parent to adult children; parent to minor children; married/partnered; full or part-time employee, volunteer, caregiver, or student).
Perceived Life Significance Scale. All participants were administered an initial pool of 48 potential PLSS items, 19 of which were retained for the final PLSS scale (see Appendix A for retained items; see PLSS Item Selection section for details as to the criteria for item retention; see Results section for psychometric properties of the final scale).
Life Orientation Questionnaire. The higher-order construct of meaning was measured using the 29-item version of the Life Orientation Questionnaire (SOC-29) a measure of sense of coherence (described above). The SOC-29 has demonstrated good criterion, predictive, concurrent and discriminant validity, and internal consistency has ranged from .70 to .95 across a number of studies (Eriksson & Lindstrom, 2007).
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Meaning In Life Questionnaire. Meaning as a higher-order construct was also measured using the Presence subscale of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ-P), which the authors describe as "a measure of "the sense made of, and significance felt regarding, the nature of one’s being and existence (Steger et al., 2006, p. 81)." The MLQ has demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity (Steger et al., 2006). Despite containing only five items, the
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Presence subscale has demonstrated acceptable reliability (α=.86).
Positive And Negative Affect Schedule. Positive and negative affect were measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), which consists of two 10-item subscales designed to measure positive and negative affective states (Watson et al, 1988). Participants were instructed to complete PANAS items with respect to how they feel “generally, on average.” The PANAS demonstrates good internal consistency reliability (α=0.81 for positive affect and α=.88 for negative affect; Watson et al, 1988).
Center For Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Symptoms of depression were assessed using the 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10; Kohout et al., 1993). The original 20-item CESD is one of the most widely used measures of depressive symptomatology and has well-established validity and reliability. The CESD-10 has demonstrated reliability and validity comparable to its longer counterpart, with α=.92 (Kohout et al., 1993).
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Texas Revised Inventory Of Grief. Grief intensity was measured using the 13-item Present Feelings subscale of the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG), one of the most commonly used measures of grief. The Present Feelings subscale has demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability (α=.89; Faschingbauer, 1981).
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World Assumptions Scale. Sense-making was assessed using the World Assumptions Scale (WAS), the most commonly used measure of global beliefs affected by stressful life events. The WAS is organized into eight subscales, assessing three primary schemas theorized by JanoffBulman (1992) to play an important mediating role in the impact of stressful events: benevolence, world meaning, and self-worth. The items are rated on a six-point scale with endpoints of 1 (Strongly disagree) and 6 (Strongly Agree). The WAS has demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability, with alpha coefficients for the eight subscales ranging from .68 to .86 (Janoff-Bulman, 1989). The construct validity of the WAS has been supported by a number of studies (Schwartzberg & Janoff-Bulman, 1991; Elklit, Shevlin, Solomon, & Dekel, 2007; Matthews & Marwit, 2004).
Fulfillment. Participants were asked: “Please rate how fulfilled or satisfied you feel by each of the following areas of your life, using the following scale” and provided with endpoints ranging from 1 ("Not at all fulfilled") to 7 ("Completely fulfilled"). Total fulfillment was
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then summed across the eight areas assessed (work, relationships, hobbies, community, noticing beauty, helping, living according to values, religious/spiritual).
Integration Of Stressful Life Experiences Scale (ISLES). The ISLES, a measure of the integration and coherence of narratives following a stressful event (Holland et al., 2010), was administered to all participants. However, it was not
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used in any of the analyses presented here.
RESULTS Quantitative analyses were conducted using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 19.0. The Mardia test of multivariate abnormality indicated significant multivariate kurtosis for the PLSS items in the student sample (Mardia=470.19, criterion of 101.52); thus, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses utilized methods of estimation that are robust to violations of normality.
Sample Strategy. The use of two independent samples (community bereaved adults and bereaved students) allowed for a more valid hypothesis testing process and stronger confirmation of the factor structure and validity of the PLSS (DeVellis, 2011). The community sample was used for initial analyses to inform PLSS item selection decisions, including exploratory factor analysis and individual item statistics. The student sample, collected six months later, was used for confirmatory analyses of the 19-item PLSS scale (constructed of items selected from the initial 48-item pool, which was administered to the students in its
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entirety), as well as discriminant validity of the PLSS with respect to a measure of sensemaking. Correlations between the PLSS and other measures (to further assess convergent and discriminant validity), as well as inter-item reliability, were found to be highly similar across the two samples; thus, these statistics are reported for the combined student and community samples (N=836).
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Missing Data Strategy. Participants in both the community sample (N=67) and student sample (N=43) who did not complete at least the demographics questionnaire and the majority of PLSS items (i.e., those who exited the survey soon after beginning it) were removed from the study. In both samples, a conservative missing data strategy was employed in that total scores were calculated only for participants who completed at least 95% of that measure. For the exploratory factor analysis (community sample), a pairwise missing data strategy was adopted and the factor solution for the final item pool was cross-checked against a solution generated using listwise deletion of missing cases. For the confirmatory analyses (student sample), Little's MCAR test indicated patterns in the missing data, contraindicating listwise deletion; thus, missing PLSS and WAS values were estimated using the Expectation-Maximization algorithm.
Plss Item Selection. Item selection decisions and exploratory analyses were performed using the community sample. Of the initial 48-item pool of potential PLSS items, 18 were discarded based on item skew and kurtosis and redundancy of item content. Principal axis factoring with
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oblique (promax) rotation was used to determine the factor structure underlying the remaining pool of 30 items. Three factors were retained based on the scree plot and eigenvalues. Items with loading greater than .5 on any factor while not loading greater than .3 were retained through several additional item pools, resulting in 19 final PLSS items.
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A final exploratory analysis was performed to evaluate the factor structure and loadings of the final PLSS items, using the same extraction method, rotation, and missing data strategy described above. All validity tests (determinant, Bartlett's sphericity, KaiserMeyer-Olkin test) were acceptable (Pett, Lackey, & Sullivan, 2003). The rotated solution of this final factor analysis demonstrated the same three factors as the initial solution. The first factor includes items corresponding with the hypothesized subdimension of active life significance, as described above; the second factor contained all reverse-scored items representing the perceived absence of significance; the third factor corresponds with the hypothesized subdimension of receptive life significance. All items demonstrated acceptable rotated factor loadings (see Table 2). These three factors were named Active, Negative, and Receptive Life Significance.
Internal Consistency. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated using a combined sample of community and student participants (N=836). The total PLSS score demonstrated excellent reliability (α=.95). Of the three PLSS subscale scores (corresponding to the three factors described above), Active Significance (α=.95) and Negative Significance (α=.93) both
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demonstrated excellent reliability, while Receptive Significance (α=.70) demonstrated adequate reliability (Nunnally, 1978).
Stability Of PLSS Factor Structure. The three-factor structure described above was subjected to a confirmatory analysis using the student sample (Figure 1). Brown's (2006) asymptotically-free distribution estimation
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method was used due to its robustness to multivariate abnormality. Fit measures robust to multivariate abnormality, large sample sizes, and varying methods of estimation were examined, including a measure of absolute fit (standardized root mean square residual; SRMR) and a parsimony-corrected fit index (root mean square error of approximation; RMSEA), as recommended by Brown (2006). Comparative fit indices were not evaluated due to a low RMSEA for the null model (Kenny & McCoach, 2003).
Chi-square was statistically significant, χ2=323.58, df=149, p
