Life Project Scale: a new measure to assess the coherence of the intended future

Abstract

This article identifies different types of validity and reliability evidence of the Life Project Scale (LPS), a new psychometric measure to assess the coherence of the intended future. It comprises three studies involving five samples that accounted for 2,808 participants from Brazil and Portugal. The final version of the LPS contains two factors with four items each. The factors assess identification (i.e., awareness of one’s intended future) and involvement (i.e., enactment of plans and actions in favor of one’s intended future). The two factors are indicators of the coherence of life projects’ intentional structures and action. Altogether, the three studies provide validity and reliability evidence based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the assessment of ceiling and floor effects, four types of reliability coefficients, relations to other measures (authenticity and meaning in life), and measurement invariance models. Therefore, the LPS is ready for further use, development, and testing in other research and practice contexts.