The study of developing life goals scale for adolescents

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and a reliable scaling instrument which can be used to determine the life goals of 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade students going on their education in a high school and to analyze the scores obtained from this scale in terms of some variables. During the process of scale development, focus group study was done in order to create an item pool. This item pool consists of 119 items. The expert opinions finalised the items in the item pool. The test/trial form of the scale was conducted with the 1439 high school students attending 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades and the final form consisting of 40 items was created as a result of exploratory factor analysis done to determine structure validity. Subsequent to the exploratory factor analysis, five-factor structure including 40 items was achieved. These factors were named as personal growth, community contribution, admiration/appreciation, spirituality and affiliation. The final form was conducted with 298 high school students attending 9th., 10th., 11th. and 12.th grades to do confirmatory factor analysis. The acquired data were analyzed in conformity with the steps of scale development process. The reliability coefficient of Cronbach's alpha internal consistency belonging the whole scale was 0.91 and test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.85. As a result of the analysis, an scale having a proven validity and reliability and consisting of 5 sub-dimensions and 40 items was developed to test the life goals of the students attending 9th., 10th., 11th and 12th grades. According to students' gender and class levels, comparisons related to total scores obtained from Life Goals Scale For Adolescents were made. While the scores the students have in Life Goals Scale For Adolescents differentiated significiantly in terms of gender, there was not a significiant difference in terms of class level.