Abstract
“The sense of a life worth-living” is a term valid for the analysis of adolescence as well as other periods in life, and it has been chosen as a research subject by many researchers. However, there has not been any study which includes making a scale. The present study, therefore, first makes a scale based on a series of researches; i, e. preparatory research by open ended question on “the sense of a life worth-living” secondary research to confirm the obtained data, and a main research to check the reliability and the validity of the scale drawn. Conclusively, a definition of the sense of a life worth-living is presented. As a result, the 49 types of “the sense of a life worth-living” adopted in the preparatory research was reduced to 42 types. In the main research where questionnaires faithfully prepared from the original were used, the number was further reduced to 31 types after item analysis mainly using factor analysis. At this time, the scale was made from a multidimentional structure of 4 factors. The value of criterion related validity is observed to be high, and a high reliability coefficient is also obtained by the test-retest method and the α coefficient. Drawn from the above results, the scale on “the sense of a life worth-living” consisting of 31 types has face validity, content validity, factor validity and creterion-related validity, hence it is a reliable scale. According to the present scale, “the definition of the sense of a life worth-living” among college students is that they are aware of the value of their exsistence, satisfied with the present situation and have a will to live. However, they also seem to believe that enjoying life also has the sense of a life worth-living.
