高中生涯目的感量表之編製與驗證

The Development and Validation of a Career Purpose Scale for Taiwanese High School Students

本研究旨在發展以高中學生為對象之生涯目的感量表，並了解其現況差異情形。量表發展過程以相關理論為基礎，邀請專家進行內容效度檢驗，並進行預試分析，預試人數共227份。最後為正式量表信度與效度驗證。以臺灣高中生為母群，依北中南東比例，進行叢集抽樣，有效問卷共997份，平均年齡為17.23。正式量表包含四個向度，分別是信心承諾、關係支持、興趣熱情以及利他抱負，共19題，以李克氏六點量表填答。分析過程先進行預試項目分析，再採取隨機抽樣50%，分別進行探索性與驗證性因素分析。四因素所得總解釋變異量達66.59%。以四因素一階模式進行驗證性因素分析，結果顯示基本模式配適度尚稱良好，亦具有跨樣本的穩定性。另整體量表與生活滿意度量表呈現低度相關，而分量表中的信心承諾與生涯定向量表有明顯正相關，顯示具有效標關聯效度。另以107位學生分析重測信度，顯示四個分量表具有相當的時間穩定性。研究根據結果與討論，進一步提出未來研究與實務建議。

The concept of“career purpose”(Damon, 2008) in the spiritual perspective explores an individual’s vision and meaning. Questions such as“How do you think about your future? What path resonates with your inner self? What can guide you forward?”are not only related to career choices, but also deeply connected with personal identity and fulfillment. In Taiwan, however, there has been little research on the current state and influences of career purpose among high school students. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a Career Purpose Scale specifically for high school students and to explore the differences in their current career purpose status.
The scale development process consisted of three stages. The first stage involved a qualitative preliminary study as the foundation for scale construction. A total of 55 first-year high school students from northern Taiwan participated in the study. These students were recruited through guidance offices in seven high schools in Taipei City and New Taipei City. The students were invited through course promotions or referrals by guidance counselors. Among the participants, 16 were male, 39 were female, and their ages ranged from 15 to 17 years, with an average age of 15.69 years (SD = 0.50). The researcher designed a semi-structured interview guide, referring to the revised youth purpose protocol (Andrews et al., 2006). The interview focused on the development of career purpose, its meaning, and its impact. The qualitative interview analysis, along with relevant theories, provided the basis for constructing the high school Career Purpose Scale.
The second stage involved inviting experts to review the content validity of the scale’s items and structure. A pretest was conducted with 227 high school students (105 male, 220 female, 2 missing gender information) from three high schools. Pretest analysis of their responses to the 37-item scale led to item revision and the establishment of a formal scale. After further discussions with the team to clarify related concepts, the final version of the scale consisted of four factors: Confidence and commitment, relationship support, interest and passion, and altruistic ambition. The initial draft of the scale retained 27 items.
The third stage focused on establishing and validating the reliability and validity of the formal scale. The target population was high school students in Taiwan, and cluster sampling was used to ensure regional representation (North, Central, South, and East Taiwan). A total of 997 valid questionnaires were collected (472 male, 516 female, and 9 missing gender information), with an average age of 17.23 years. The data were subjected to item analysis, and 50% of the sample was randomly selected for exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The total explained variance of the four factors was 66.59%, with factor loadings ranging from .43 to .93 and correlations between factors ranging from .25 to .46. The internal consistency for the four factors (confidence and commitment, altruistic ambition, interest and passion, and relationship support) was .93, .89, .83, and .68, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the model fit was acceptable, with cross-sample stability. Regarding criterion-related validity, there was a higher positive correlation between the confidence and commitment and the Career Decision Scale, indicating a positive relation with career decisions and the other subscales showed a low positive relation. This suggests that there is a positive correlation between the Career Purpose Scale and career decision. As for overall life satisfaction, it showed a low correlation with the subscales of the Career Purpose Scale.
The final scale consists of four dimensions: confidence and commitment, relationship support, interest and passion, and altruistic ambition, with 19 items measured on a six-point Likert scale. The confidence and commitment dimension refers to having a clear understanding of one’s future goals, with plans and actions in place, and feeling confident in achieving them. There are five items in this dimension, such as“I have a clear and specific plan to achieve my aspirations.”The relationship support dimension refers to the understanding, support, and assistance from family or significant others in relation to future aspirations, and the desire for these aspirations to have a positive impact on others. This dimension contains four items, such as“My family respects and supports the aspirations I have chosen.”The interest and passion dimension, with five items, focuses on understanding one’s interests and passions and hoping to pursue them in the future. For example,“For me, my ideal goal is something I am passionate about.”Lastly, the altruistic ambition dimension, which also contains five items, relates to holding beliefs, values, or aspirations that are important personally or for the future society, and wanting to help others or contribute to social change through one’s future goals. An example item is“I hope my future job will give me a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction through helping others.”
In the past, the Claremont Purpose Scale was developed (Bronk et al., 2018), which includes three constructs: Goal orientation, personal meaning, and transcendence and altruistic orientation. On the other hand, developed a purpose scale targeting college students aged 18 to 25, with a framework consisting of three subconstructs: Awareness of purpose, the pursuit of purpose, and altruistic aspirations (Sharma & Yukhymenko-Lescroart, 2019). When comparing the structural content of the scale developed in this study with the two mentioned scales, similar constructs are found in the areas of confidence commitment and altruistic aspirations. This indicates that these two aspects of purpose transcend cultural differences and also encompass the shared aspects of general purpose and career-related purpose. However, it is worth noting that the differences in this study lie in the aspects of interest passion and relational support. Interest passion is primarily a construct specific to the career domain, reflecting the fact that high school students’career purpose mainly stems from personal, unique interests and passions, gradually forming a direction and internal intention of“what I want to do,”rather than just a simple choice of career abilities (Bronk, 2014; Damon, 2008). A unique finding of this study is the relational support dimension within the scale, which is less commonly seen in purpose scales abroad. This highlights the unique significance of family and relationships emphasized in Chinese culture, which also aligns with Wang’s research (Kearns et al., 2024). Wang’s study compared the differences in the purpose content between Taiwanese and American high school students and found that the emphasis on relational aspects was a key difference between the two groups. The results of this study show that the subscale averages, from high to low, are as follows: interest passion, relational support, altruistic aspirations, and confidence commitment, with interest passion and relational support scoring higher. In terms of gender differences, the results indicate that there are gender differences in career purpose, with females scoring slightly higher than males on the relational support and altruistic aspirations subscales, while males score slightly higher than females on the confidence commitment subscale.
The Career Purpose Scale developed in this study features multiple constructs and incorporates cultural significance relevant to the Chinese context. Among the four subconstructs, some gender differences were observed. This scale serves as an appropriate tool for measuring the development of career purpose among high school students and offers practical and research value. Suggestions for applying the scale include: (1) The scale is suitable for in-depth exploration of the meaning, vision, and inner intentions of career purpose, rather than solely focusing on feedback related to interests; (2) The scale provides a new perspective on career development that was previously unavailable. Besides assessing overall career purpose, the confidence and commitment dimension can be integrated with career orientation assessments, and the altruistic ambition dimension can help understand students’sense of purpose in life. The relationship support dimension reflects social support and resources, providing valuable insights into high school students’career development and career concerns; and (3) Career counselors can use the scale results to discuss ways to enhance career purpose, such as through more hands-on exploration, participation in diverse courses and activities, expanding or accumulating experiences of achievement, building interest and deep passion, and increasing confidence in pursuing one’s vision. Attention should also be given to social connections and support, creating better networks for exploring purpose. Encouraging the narration of one’s vision and its personal significance can help clarify strengths and related plans. Volunteering and helping others can also be encouraged, helping high school students cultivate and realize their sense of purpose, thus shaping their core career beliefs and enhancing their career purpose.