Identity Development as a Mediator of General Life Purpose and Perceived Well-Being
Among University Students
Shelby Stone, Dr. Cindy Miller-Perrin, & Dr. Don Thompson
Pepperdine University
Introduction
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
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Discussion
Results
Life Purpose and Well-Being: According to previous research, life
purpose is related to well-being (Thoits, 2012). As life purpose gives
people a sense of direction, it seems that this sense of meaning
contributes to a person’s overall perceived well-being.
Pearson Product-Moment correlations were conducted between all dependent variables.
Results revealed a significant positive correlation between identity achievement and both
perceived well-being and general life purpose, whereas results demonstrated significant negative
correlations between both identity diffusion and moratorium and both perceived well-being and
general life purpose (see Table 1). A multiple linear regression analysis determined that identity
achievement, diffusion, and moratorium all significantly predicted well-being.
Mediators: Some research has looked into what factors may mediate
the relationship between life purpose and perceived well-being, such as
Adams, Besner, Drabbs, Zambarano, and Steinhardt (2000), who
discovered that life purpose, when mediated by optimism and selfcoherence, impacts perceived well-being.
In order to examine the role of identity development as a mediator of life purpose and
perceived well-being, the mediation method of Baron and Kenny (1986) was utilized. Life
purpose served as the distal variable, perceived well-being as the outcome variable, and identity
achievement, diffusion, and moratorium as the mediators. Identity achievement failed to predict
perceived well-being when both life purpose and identity achievement were in the model (B =
0.17, p > 0.05).
Life Purpose and Identity Development: Other areas of research
suggest that student who have developed a solid concept of identity are
more likely to have a secure concept of vocation, life purpose, and the
reverse is also true (Feenstra & Brouwer, 2008).
Table 2 contains the results for the analyses involving identity diffusion as a mediator
between general life purpose and perceived well-being, and Table 3 contains the results using
identity moratorium as a mediator. Both of these variables satisfied all four criteria. As general
life purpose still predicted perceived well-being, as indicated by the significance of the
regression coefficient, when either identity diffusion or moratorium was added, there remains
only a partial mediation effect for identity diffusion and moratorium. Furthermore, the largest
effect sizes of both identity diffusion (R2 = 0.30) and identity moratorium (R2 = 0.31) were found
in the step involving life purpose and identity statues as predictors of perceived well-being.
Current Study: As students develop a personal identity, especially
through determination of life purpose, students may help contribute to
a more positive and rounded well-being. Therefore, this study seeks to
investigate the hypothesis that college students with a better sense of
life purpose develop a solid concept of identity, resulting in a more
rounded perception of well-being.
Table 1
Correlation Results Between Identity Status, Perceived Well-Being, and
General Life Purpose.
Variable
Perceived Well-Being
Identity Achievement
0.272**
0.448**
Identity Diffusion
–0.336**
–0.321**
Identity Moratorium
–0.355**
–0.417**
Identity Foreclosure
–0.146*
–0.112
Perceived Well-Being
–
0.533**
*p < 0.05 (2-tailed).
**p < 0.01 (2-tailed).
Table 2
Mediation Regression Analysis Including General Life Purpose, Well-Being, and Identity Diffusion.
R2
SE B
ß
1. Predicting Well-Being from GLP
0.81
0.09
0.53**
0.62
0.99
0.29
2. Predicting Diffusion from GLP
–0.15
0.03
–0.32**
–0.22
–0.10
0.10
3. Predicting Well-Being from Diffusion controlling for GLP
–0.54
0.20
–0.18**
–0.93
–0.15
0.30
4. Predicting Well-Being from GLP with Diffusion added
0.71
0.10
0.47**
0.51
0.91
0.30
Methods
Participants: A randomly selected sample of 218 male (35%) and female
(65%) college students, who were part of a large longitudinal study on
college student development, served as participants. Participants were
enrolled in a private, Christian, liberal arts university in southern
California. The majority of the sample was Caucasian between 20 to 22
years of age (M = 20.90).
Measures:
• General Life Purpose Scale (GLP) is an 18-item scale that assesses
general sense of life purpose, operationalized as attempts to pursue
one’s life goals, based on Emmons’ (2005) reasoning that life purpose
is expressed through goals.
• Extended Objective Measure of Ego-Identity Status (EOMEIS-2
(Revision)) is a 32-item scale that evaluates identity status based on
four scales: achievement, diffusion, moratorium, and foreclosure
(Adams, 1998).
• Perceived Wellness Scale (PWS) is a 36-item questionnaire designed
to assess an individual’s self perceptions of well-being (Adams, 1995).
The scale assesses six dimensions of perceived well-being including
psychological, emotional, social, physical, spiritual, and intellectual.
Summing responses from all of the items yields a total composite
score.
Procedure: Participants completed the measures online. The survey
required approximately 60 minutes to complete and on completion of the
survey, participants received one hour of convocation credit.
95%
95%
CI (lower) CI (upper)
B
Variable
General Life Purpose
**p < 0.01 (2-tailed).
The current study sought to investigate the relationship between general life
purpose, identity status, and perceived well-being. Our findings indicate highly significant
relationships between these variables. These findings suggest that identity development in
college students relates significantly to their overall personal well-being and general life
purpose.
Results suggest that the outcomes obtained in this study support the notion that life
purpose correlates positively with achieved identity status. This discovery also reinforces
Feenstra and Brouwer’s finding (2008) that students who maintain a strong sense of
vocational life purpose foster a strong sense of identity. Moreover, the results also endorse
our hypothesis that both general life purpose and identity significantly predict well-being.
This outcome corroborates the link between life purpose, sense of identity, and perceived
well-being as William Hettler (as cited by Nelms et al., 2007) describes well-being as
comprising psychological, occupational, and spiritual aspects. The possession of a healthy
sense of life purpose and personal identity by college students may therefore improve these
sub-dimensions of well-being, therefore contributing to overall well-being.
In regard to our hypothesis of mediation, identity diffusion and identity moratorium
negatively mediated the relationship between life purpose and perceived well-being. In
other words, part of the influence of life purpose on well-being is due to identity, and
underdeveloped identity negatively impacts well-being and life purpose. As Adam et al.
(2000) suggested, life purpose seems to relate to perceived well-being when supported by
internal factors, such as self-understanding and identity. These results indicate that students
who have adopted the identities of others or have yet to commit to an ideology may be
struggling with their understanding of self which may lead to a poor perception of their
personal well-being. Moreover, students lacking purpose in life not only decrease the
likelihood of developing a healthy sense of self, but also may hinder their own well-being.
Future research should include an exploration into why positive identity
development did not mediate the relationship between life purpose and well-being. The
development of another scale of identity, which possesses a total composite score, may
increase validity and also reveal a more comprehensive model of how identity relates with
life purpose and well-being. Additionally, it would be helpful to examine how identity
relates specifically to the various dimensions of wellness, such as psychological and
spiritual, and may reveal greater understanding about how identity particularly impacts
well-being. In order to generalize these results to other populations, a larger sampling of
individuals would be required for future research.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Pepperdine University and all the students who contributed to this project. A special thanks is
extended to Cindy Miller-Perrin and Don Thompson for collecting years of data and for all of their help in bringing this
project to fruition. Funding for this project was provided by the Center for Faith and Learning.
References
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B
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