Establishing validity and measurement invariance of the Claremont Purpose Scale among adolescents from diverse racial-ethnic backgrounds.

The Claremont Purpose Scale (CPS) was designed to assess youth purpose, but the English version has not yet undergone rigorous psychometric evaluation among adolescents. Prior validation efforts have also mostly relied on white-majority samples, raising concerns about generalizability. With 587 adolescents (Mage = 16.38 years, range = 13-19), confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) supported correlated three-factor and second-order models equivalently. However, the beyond-the-self dimension had the weakest connections with the overarching purpose construct and other CPS dimensions, and exploratory tests suggested that the correlated three-factor model may have an empirical edge over the second-order configuration. Expected zero-order correlations provided evidence of convergent validity; up to partial scalar invariance across racial-ethnic groups was supported by multigroup CFA; and latent means testing and multigroup structural equation modeling failed to find differences between racial-ethnic groups in purpose level and adjustment associations. Findings are discussed from developmental and cultural perspectives, with implications for future adolescent purpose measurement.