Developmental Psychology © 2011 American Psychological Association

2011, Vol. 47, No. 4, 1196 –1206 0012-1649/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0023818

Purpose as a Form of Identity Capital for Positive Youth Adjustment

Anthony L. Burrow Patrick L. Hill

Loyola University Chicago University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Having a sense of purpose has been discussed as a developmental asset for youth and as an outgrowth
of establishing a sense of identity. Using the identity capital model as a theoretical framework, 3 studies
examined purpose as a mediator in the relationship between identity and well-being among adolescents
and emerging adults. In Study 1A, (n ⫽ 110), purpose commitment was positively associated with
positive affect, hope, happiness among adolescents, and fully mediated associations between identity
commitment and these indices of well-being. These findings were replicated in Study 1B (n ⫽ 398), with
a sample of emerging adults and using different measures of well-being. In Study 2, multilevel random
coefficient modeling analyses examined the role of identity and purpose in the daily lives of adolescents
(n ⫽ 135). Results showed that purpose commitment fully mediated the relationship between identity and
changes in daily positive and negative affect. Overall, findings suggest that cultivating a sense of purpose
in life may be an important mechanism through which a stable identity contributes to well-being.

Keywords: youth purpose, adolescent, daily events, well-being, identity

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is
favorable.
—Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Epistulae Morales
As interest in positive youth development has grown, so has
recognition of factors that promote thriving in the everyday lives
of young people. Among these, having a sense of purpose has been
nominated as a critical asset for youth (Benson, 2006; Scales,
1999). For adults, there is broad evidence that discerning a direc-
tion in life and pursuing meaningful goals correspond with in-
creased positive affect (PA; King, Hicks, Krull, & Del Gaiso,
2006), happiness and life satisfaction (Heisel & Flett, 2004; Scan-
nell, Allen, & Burton, 2002), psychological well-being (Ryff,
1989; Wong & Fry, 1998; Zika & Chamberlain, 1992), self-
efficacy (DeWitz, Woosley, & Walsh, 2009), and resilience
(Frankl, 1959; Masten & Reed, 2002). However, the processes
underlying these relationships prior to adulthood have received
comparatively little attention (Damon, Menon, & Bronk, 2003).
Consequently, questions regarding the developmental significance
of cultivating purpose during adolescence remain unanswered,
although theoretical frameworks capable of guiding these inquiries
exist. Rarer still are studies that extend their investigation of
purpose beyond its concomitant relation to individual traits toward
its prospective role in shaping the daily lives of youth. The present
study was intended to address these limitations by investigating the
This article was published Online First May 16, 2011.
Anthony L. Burrow, Department of Psychology, Loyola University
Chicago; Patrick L. Hill, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois
at Urbana–Champaign.
This work is funded by a Stanford Center on Adolescence Youth
Purpose Research Award, which is supported by the John Templeton
Foundation and the Thrive Foundation for Youth.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Anthony
L. Burrow, Department of Psychology, 1032 West Sheridan Road, Chi-
cago, IL 60660. E-mail: aburrow1@luc.edu
1196
processes by which youths’ sense of purpose contributes to posi-
tive developmental outcomes.
One theoretical framework relevant to this line of inquiry is the
identity capital model (Côté, 1996, 1997). According to this
model, a stable sense of self facilitates individuals’ ability to
negotiate everyday experiences by enhancing their recognition of
obstacles and opportunities most relevant to them. That is, with a
clear sense of identity, experiences can be understood in light of
the personal goals individuals may possess. Identity capital, then,
represents aspects of who one is that can be invested to success-
fully navigate key tasks and to capitalize on experiences (Côté &
Schwartz, 2002). Although the utility of these personal resources
may vary across situations, forms of identity capital that engender
a capacity to understand and manage experiences as they occur are
hypothesized to be most beneficial to individuals in the context of
everyday life (Côté, 1997; Côté & Levine, 2002).
It follows from this model that developing a clear and commit-
ted sense of identity should contribute to well-being by bolstering
individuals’ sense of wherewithal and self-direction. If so, then
having a purpose in life may be a particularly salient manifestation
of identity capital. McKnight and Kashdan (2009) theorized that
“purpose is a central, self-organizing aim that organizes and stim-
ulates goals, manages behaviors, and provides a sense of meaning”
(p. 242). Although tethered to constructs such as meaning and
goals, purpose has been distinguished by scholars as a higher order
concept that provides a context in which individuals’ goals and
sense of meaning can emerge (e.g., Damon, Menon, & Bronk,
2003). Extending from this view, purpose may be interwoven with
one’s identity and therefore provide individuals with essential
guidance on how to allocate their finite set of resources toward
meaningful accomplishments and promoting and maintaining and
well-being. Some empirical support for this process has been
garnered from studies wherein purpose has been combined with
several other psychological attributes, such as self-esteem and
locus of control, to form a global personality-like variable (e.g.,
agentic personality; see Côté & Schwartz, 2002). However, be-
 PURPOSE AS IDENTITY CAPITAL
cause no studies to date have explicitly examined purpose as a
form of identity capital in the daily lives of young people, its
distinct contributions to their well-being remain important to es-
tablish. In the current research, we examine how individual dif-
ferences in purpose and identity influence adjustment during ad-
olescence and emerging adulthood.
Role of Purpose in Youth Development
At first glance, thinking of adolescence as a time when individ-
uals establish profound life concerns seems to run counter to what
is known about this developmental period. Adolescence is broadly
described as a transitional stage of autonomy seeking, identity
exploration, and emotional instability (Erikson, 1968; Lapsley &
Edgerton, 2002; Larson, Moneta, Richards, & Wilson, 2002;
29Schwartz, Côté, & Arnett, 2005). It is in this developmental
context, however, that pursuing a purpose may be particularly
adaptive for adolescents. Erikson (1968) theorized that a sense of
purpose helps adolescents to resolve identity crises by offering a
meaningful ideal to which they can dedicate themselves. In sup-
port, using measures that included purpose in life, Schwartz et al.
(2005) assessed emerging adults’ sense of responsibility for their
direction in life. These researchers found that individuals with a
greater sense of this responsibility were more likely to deliberately
seek those experiences and opportunities that provided greater
personal growth and experience a more successful transition to
adulthood. In contrast, those individuals lacking this sense ac-
cepted default patterns of development and appeared to be less
committed to experiences requiring a greater sense of agency.
Thus, to the extent that having a sense of purpose is adaptive,
youth without a purpose may fail to reap its associated benefits
because of their relative inability to select meaningful opportuni-
ties with which to engage.
To the extent that individual differences in identity and purpose
correspond with distinct patterns of adjustment, charting the de-
velopment of these constructs among youth is important. Accord-
ing to identity formation theories (Erikson, 1964; Marcia, 1966;
Waterman, 1993), youth construct a sense of self through active
exploration that leads them to commit to particular identities over
time. Although the specific process of how individuals determine
their identity has been debated by researchers (e.g., van Hoof &
Raaijmakers, 2003), there is broad empirical evidence that youth
who are more committed to their identity fare better than those
with little or no commitment to an identity. In their review of
relevant studies, Meeus, Iedema, Helsen, and Vollebergh (1999)
documented that adolescents with higher levels of identity com-
mitment demonstrated greater psychological well-being than did
youth with less commitment.
There is also reason to believe that cultivating and maintaining
a sense of purpose is adaptive for adolescents and emerging adults.
Damon et al. (2003) characterized purpose as a central component
of youth development, one that is predictive of both individuals’
outcomes and engagement within the broader society. Although
variations in the extent to which youth have identified a purpose,
level of engagement with a purpose, and the content of purpose
may contribute to a diverse range of experiences, the meaningful
pursuit of each of these components may be reflected in a greater
sense of purpose commitment. Compared with those who are less
committed to a purpose, studies have shown that adolescents with
1197
greater purpose commitment report increased life satisfaction,
goal-directed thinking, and emotional well-being (Bronk et al.,
2009; Burrow, O’Dell, & Hill, 2010). In addition, there is emerg-
ing evidence that purpose plays a beneficial role in everyday life.
Across a series of experimental and daily diary studies with
emerging adults, King et al. (2006) found that experiences of
meaning and purpose were consistently associated with elevated
PA and lower negative affect (NA), suggesting that purpose is
directly linked to how people feel on a daily basis. Also, Steger,
Kashdan, and Oishi (2008) reported that on days when college
students engaged in behaviors that inherently related to their
purpose, they received a boost in life satisfaction on subsequent
days. Overall, establishing an identity as well as a meaningful
direction in life both appear to be developmentally adaptive during
adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Although links between identity, purpose, and adjustment con-
tinue to emerge within youth development literature, studies are
needed that attempt to clarify the processes underlying these
relationships. Developmentally, a committed sense of either iden-
tity or purpose may, over time, contribute to growth in the other.
Yet, this need not be the case; it is possible that one of these
constructs serves as a firmer context for cultivating the other.
Perhaps the most pertinent evidence, to date, of directional path-
ways that may explain these relations is derived from Kiang and
Fuligni’s (2010) study of youths’ sense of meaning in life. Using
a large and ethnically diverse sample of adolescents, these re-
searchers showed that greater levels of ethnic identity afford youth
a deeper sense of meaning and purpose, which, in turn, contributes
to more adaptive functioning and well-being. Although the corre-
lational nature of their data limited strong claims concerning
directionality, an alternative model, with identity entered as a
mediator between meaning and adjustment, proved to be much less
robust. An important contribution of this work was its use of a
daily diary approach, which provided a glimpse into how youths’
sense of meaning related to their emotional adjustment in everyday
life. However, because daily reports were pooled to create overall
aggregate scores, more nuanced day-to-day changes in well-being
may have been obscured. Still unknown is whether individual
differences in identity and purpose can influence well-being as it
unfolds in the context of daily life. Moreover, in the current
research, we examined the extent to which purpose serves as a
prime mechanism by which identity contours within-person
changes in daily emotions.
Overview of the Present Research
Determining the value of purpose for positive youth develop-
ment hinges, in part, on the ability to demonstrate that it promotes
well-being. By situating identity as a basis for setting and achiev-
ing goals, the identity capital model offers a starting point for
understanding how purpose may serve as an asset in the everyday
lives of young people. Given the paucity of empirical research on
purpose among youth, the current research borrows from literature
on meaning and agency to support three studies designed to
investigate purpose as a mechanism through which identity relates
to indicators of well-being among adolescents and emerging
adults. Specifically, in Study 1A, we examined how identity and
purpose related to well-being among adolescent high school stu-
dents. The direct and indirect effects of both identity commitment
1198 BURROW AND HILL
and purpose commitment on adjustment were assessed. Study 1B
was designed to replicate and build on Study 1A with a sample of
emerging adults. Although identity formation is considered to be a
primary developmental task during adolescence and emerging
adulthood, committing to an identity is thought to be linked with
more definitive roles and serious consequences, particularly for
emerging adults (Arnett, 2000; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, &
Beyers, 2006). Therefore, charting the pathways by which identity
influences adjustment may illuminate key resources that aid youth
in the essential transition to adulthood. In addition to seeking
converging evidence across these similar but distinguishable de-
velopmental periods, we sought to investigate whether the patterns
of findings held using several markers of positive well-being.
Finally, in Study 2, we examined the role of identity and purpose
in the context of adolescents’ daily lives. A prospective diary
methodology was used to examine purpose commitment as a
mediator in the association between identity commitment and daily
changes in emotional well-being. Because identity and purpose are
theorized to be valuable assets for those that possess them, greater
levels of both were hypothesized to promote greater well-being for
youth across each study.
Study 1A
Background and Predictions
If purpose is to be viewed as a form of identity capital, then it
should be implicated in how identity impacts well-being. Study 1A
served as an initial test of our hypothesis that identity commitment
is linked to greater purpose commitment, which, in turn, confers
greater well-being. To test this claim, we surveyed adolescents to
determine their levels of identity commitment and purpose com-
mitment and to examine their association with hope, happiness,
and PA. The cross-sectional nature of this study, however, pre-
cluded strong claims regarding the directionality of relationships
and complicated determining whether purpose mediates the rela-
tionship between identity and well-being or if identity serves to
mediate the link between purpose and well-being. We therefore
tested both models using the bootstrapping approach suggested by
Preacher and Hayes (2004). Although this approach cannot rule
out one mediational model in favor of the alternative, accruing
evidence for one mediational pathway over another across out-
comes would provide a stronger suggestion that one model fits
better than the other. Consistent with Kiang and Fuligni (2010), we
anticipated that purpose commitment would serve as a more robust
mediator than would identity commitment.
Method
Participants and procedure. One hundred seven students
were sampled from an urban, private, and Catholic-affiliated high
school. Overall, 51% of the sample was female and the mean age
of 15.74 years (SD ⫽ 1.85). The breakdown of students by
classification was fairly balanced: 26% freshmen, 22% sopho-
mores, 29% juniors, and 22% seniors. Participant ethnicities mir-
rored those of the surrounding community: 65% White, 15%
Latino, 9% African American, and 8% Asian. Students were
recruited from English classes and told that participation would
involve completing a paper-and-pencil survey that would be ad-
ministered by their instructors. The survey took approximately 20
min to complete. All students received a $5 gift certificate for their
participation.
Measures.
Identity commitment. The Ego Identity Process Question-
naire (Balistreri, Busch-Rossnagel, & Geisinger, 1995) measures
identity commitment and identity exploration across eight content
domains (occupation, religion, politics, values, family, friendships,
dating, and sex roles). Evidence for the validity of this measure has
been demonstrated across ethnically diverse youth samples
(Schwartz, 2007; Schwartz, Zamboanga, Weisskirch, & Rodri-
guez, 2009). Collapsing across content domains (cf. Schwartz,
2007), the current study used the Identity Commitment subscale
(16 items, standardized ␣ ⫽ .77). Sample items include “I have
definitely decided on the occupation I want to pursue,” “I am
confident about what kinds of friends are best for me,” and “I have
firmly held views concerning my role in my family.” Participants
rated each item on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly
agree).
Purpose commitment. Commitment to purpose was assessed
with the Revised Youth Purpose Survey (Bundick et al., 2006).
This scale was constructed by borrowing from related measures of
purpose and meaning in life (i.e., Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1967;
Keyes, Smotkin, & Ryff, 2002; Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler,
2006) and has demonstrated reliability and predictive validity with
adolescent samples (Bronk et al., 2009; Burrow, O’Dell, & Hill,
2010).
In the current study, only the Commitment subscale (15 items;
standardized ␣ ⫽ .81) was administered. Sample items include “I
have discovered a satisfying life purpose,” “I participate in one or
more organizations that serve my purpose in life,” and “I have
many relationships that add meaning to my life.” Response formats
ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
Hope. The Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991) assesses two
cognitive attributes thought to engender a sense of hope: agency
and pathways. The Agency subscale (four items; standardized ␣ ⫽
.73) measures one’s level of goal-directed determination, and a
sample item is “I energetically pursue my goals.” The Pathways
subscale (four items; standardized ␣ ⫽ .61) measures one’s per-
ceived ability to think of multiple ways to achieve a goal, and a
sample item is “I can think of many ways to get out of a jam.” The
response format for both subscales ranged from 1 (definitely false)
to 4 (definitely true).
Happiness. The Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky &
Lepper, 1999) measures how happy participants feel about their
lives. Participants rate four items on a 7-point scale that depends
on the specific item. For example, participants completed the
phrase “In general, I consider myself” by giving an answer on a
scale from 1 (not a very happy person) to 7 (a very happy person).
Higher scores indicate greater felt happiness (standardized
␣ ⫽ .83).
PA. PA was assessed using items from the Positive and
Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988).
Participants indicated the extent to which they experienced each of
10 emotions (active, alert, attentive, determined, enthusiastic, ex-
cited, inspired, interested, proud, strong) during the past week. The
response format ranged from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5
(extremely). Standardized ␣ was .79.
 PURPOSE AS IDENTITY CAPITAL
Analytic plan. Following Baron and Kenny’s (1986) guide-
lines for statistical mediation, the main effect of identity commit-
ment on our indicators of well-being should attenuate when pur-
pose is included in the model. In addition, purpose commitment
should positively predict well-being, thus establishing the indirect
effect of identity commitment on well-being. Full mediation oc-
curs if the main effect is no longer significant, whereas partial
mediation occurs when the main effect is attenuated but remains
significant
Correlational analyses were performed to ensure that identity
commitment positively correlated with purpose commitment and
that both variables positively correlated with the outcomes of
interest. Put differently, we first ensured that the predictors, me-
diators, and outcomes were all, in fact, positively related. Follow-
ing this step, we examined the mediational tests of interest using
the Preacher and Hayes (2004) bootstrap approach. Simulation
research has shown that bootstrapping is one of the more valid and
powerful methods for testing indirect effects, it has higher power
while maintaining reasonable control over the Type I error rate,
and it can also be recommended when smaller samples are avail-
able (e.g., MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, & Sheets,
2002; Williams & MacKinnon, 2008). For each outcome in the
adolescent and emerging adult samples, we performed two medi-
ation tests: one with identity commitment as the predictor and
purpose commitment as the mediator, and another with purpose
commitment as the predictor and identity commitment as the
mediator. Each test was performed with 2,000 bootstrap samples.
Results and Discussion
Descriptive analyses. Intercorrelations, means, and standard
deviations for Study 1A variables are presented in Table 1. All
variables correlated positively. These results provide support in
favor of testing the two proposed mediational models. Moreover,
because both identity commitment and purpose commitment were
intercorrelated and were significantly correlated with each out-
come variable, we proceeded to examine two separate models,
with each serving as a predictor and a mediator. In each case, the
bootstrapping technique was used.
Mediation analyses. We first performed the mediation tests
in line with our predictions generated from the identity capital
model using our adolescent sample, namely, that the effect of
identity commitment on well-being was mediated by purpose
commitment. As shown on the left side of Table 2, purpose
Table 1
Intercorrelations, Means, and Standard Deviations for Study 1A Variables
Variable 1 2
1. Identity commitment —
2. Purpose commitment .50ⴱ —
3. Hope–agency .28ⴱ .54ⴱ
4. Hope–pathways .34ⴱ .35ⴱ
5. Happiness .23ⴱ .36ⴱ
6. Positive affect .32ⴱ .55ⴱ
M 3.64 4.78
SD 0.68 0.91
Note. All p values are two-tailed. N ⫽ 100.
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05.
1199
significantly mediated the link between identity commitment and
all four well-being outcomes. For three outcomes, identity com-
mitment no longer evidenced a significant direct effect with pur-
pose commitment in the model: for hope–agency, B ⫽ 0.00, t ⫽
0.00; for happiness, B ⫽ 0.04, t ⫽ 0.40; and for PA, B ⫽ 0.43, t ⫽
0.50. For hope–pathways, the direct effect remained weakly sig-
nificant, B ⫽ 0.14, t ⫽ 2.07, p ⬍ .05. Therefore, purpose com-
mitment fully mediated the link between identity commitment and
agency, happiness, and PA and partially mediated the effect of
identity commitment on pathways.
We then tested mediation models for an alternate directional
hypothesis, namely, that purpose commitment leads to greater
identity commitment, which, in turn, leads to greater well-being.
As is evident from the right side of Table 2, these models received
less empirical support. In only one case (hope pathways) did
identity commitment serve as a significant mediator. Yet, the
direct effect of purpose commitment remained significant in this
case, B ⫽ 0.13, t ⫽ 2.44, p ⬍ .05. In sum, for adolescents, the
empirical evidence much more strongly supported the claim that
purpose is one form of identity capital rather than the claim that
purpose commitment engenders greater identity commitment.
Study 1B
Background and Predictions
In Study 1A, purpose commitment was found to mediate the
association between identity commitment and well-being among
adolescents. Study 1B sought to replicate this finding with a
sample of emerging adults. Specifically, we surveyed college
students to document their levels of identity commitment, purpose
commitment, hope, and life satisfaction. It was hypothesized that
purpose commitment would account for the relationship between
identity and well-being. Extending evidence of the mediational
role of purpose into emerging adulthood would offer an important
conceptual overlap between these two transformative developmen-
tal periods.
Method
Participants and procedure. Three hundred ninety-eight
undergraduates (58% women; Mage ⫽ 19.0 years, SD ⫽ 1.11)
participated in an online survey for course credit at a Catholic
university in the Midwestern United States. Most students were in
3 4 5 6
—
.28ⴱ —
.33ⴱ .25ⴱ —
.53ⴱ .27ⴱ .40ⴱ —
3.19 3.04 4.55 37.16
0.53 0.46 0.69 6.33
1200 BURROW AND HILL

Table 2
Results of Mediation Tests for Study 1A

Purpose as a mediator Identity as a mediator

Outcome Indirect effect B SE Z 95% CI Indirect effect B SE Z 95% CI

Hope–agency 0.19 0.05 4.04ⴱ [.12, .31] 0.00 0.03 0.00 [⫺.05, .05]
Hope–pathways 0.08 0.03 2.26ⴱ [.01, .16] 0.05 0.03 1.96ⴱ [.01, .11]
Happiness 0.16 0.06 2.82ⴱ [.06, .30] 0.02 0.04 0.41 [⫺.05, .08]
PA 2.21 0.56 3.93ⴱ [1.36, 3.56] 0.16 0.32 0.51 [⫺.46, .81]

Note. PA ⫽ positive affect; CI ⫽ confidence interval.

ⴱ
p ⬍ .05.

their first year at college (65%). All participants completed the
survey through an online site secured for data collection. Partici-
pants were able to complete the survey at any time during the day,
at any computer with Internet access. All data were encrypted prior
to transmission to ensure confidentiality.
Measures. Identity commitment, purpose commitment,
agency, and pathways were assessed using the same scales as in
the adolescent sample. The standardized alphas for the emerging
adult sample were .75, .91, .69, and .70, respectively.
The Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, &
Griffin, 1985) was used to assess participants’ overall life satis-
faction. Sample items include “In most ways my life is close to my
ideal,” “The conditions of my life are excellent,” and “I am
satisfied with my life.” Participants rated five items on a scale from
1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Reliability in the
current sample, as measured bystandardized ␣, was .83.
Results and Discussion
Descriptive analyses. Intercorrelations, means, and standard
deviations for Study 1B variables are presented in Table 3. Similar
to Study 1A, all variables correlated positively with each other.
These intercorrelations thus would support either mediational
model, and therefore we proceeded to investigate both possibilities
using the bootstrapping approach.
Mediation analyses. In line with the identity capital model,
we predicted that purpose commitment would mediate the associ-
ation between identity commitment and well-being among emerg-
ing adults. On the left side of Table 4, it can be seen that purpose
served as a significant mediator for all well-being outcomes.
Specifically, after including purpose commitment in the models,
the initially significant direct effect of identity commitment on
outcomes failed to reach statistical significance in two cases:
hope–agency, B ⫽ 0.05, t ⫽ 1.60, and hope–pathways, B ⫽
⫺0.04, t ⫽ ⫺1.07. For satisfaction with life, however, the direct
effect for identity commitment was reduced but remained signif-
icant after accounting for purpose commitment, B ⫽ 0.28, t ⫽
3.21, p ⬍ .05. Thus, purpose commitment fully mediated the links
between identity commitment and both hope subscales and par-
tially mediated its association with life satisfaction.
The alternate mediation model was also examined. Results are
presented on the right side of Table 4. In this model, identity
commitment mediated the link between purpose commitment and
well-being for life satisfaction but not for the other outcome
measures. In the case of life satisfaction, the direct effect of
purpose commitment remained significant, B ⫽ 0.37, t ⫽ 6.33,
p ⬍ .05. Thus, results were less favorable for identity commitment
as a mediator between purpose commitment and well-being among
emerging adults.
Taken together, Studies 1A and 1B provided initial tests of the
claim that establishing a purpose in life serves as identity capital
during adolescence and emerging adulthood. As hypothesized,
identity commitment and purpose commitment were both shown to
positively relate to several indicators of well-being. In addition,
results indicated that commitment to one’s identity was associated
with higher levels of well-being via its linkage with greater pur-
pose commitment. By contrast, little evidence was found for an
alternative processes, where identity operates as a mediator be-
tween purpose and well-being. Thus, both studies suggest that
purpose may be a particularly valuable form of capital that is
available to those youth who have committed to an identity.

Table 3
Intercorrelations, Means, and Standard Deviations for Study 1B Variables

Variable 1 2 3 4 5

1. Identity commitment —
2. Purpose commitment .49ⴱ —
3. Hope–agency .30ⴱ .50ⴱ —
4. Hope–pathways .11ⴱ .34ⴱ .42ⴱ —
5. Life satisfaction .33ⴱ .40ⴱ .55ⴱ .27ⴱ —
M 3.82 4.94 3.29 3.03 5.19
SD 0.63 0.94 0.43 0.44 1.09

Note. N ⫽ 391. All p values are two-tailed.

ⴱ
p ⬍ .05.
 PURPOSE AS IDENTITY CAPITAL
Table 4
Results of Mediation Tests for Study 1B
Purpose as mediator
Outcome Indirect effect B SE Z 95% CI
Hope–agency 0.15 0.02 7.07ⴱ
Hope–pathways 0.12 0.02 5.61ⴱ
Life satisfaction 0.26 0.05 5.45ⴱ
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05.
Because of the cross-sectional nature of these studies, however, we
could not investigate whether purpose is a resource capable of
promoting increases in well-being. Study 2 was designed to assess
this issue in the course of youths’ daily lives.
Study 2
Background and Predictions
In Study 2, we used an experience sampling design to investi-
gate the ways in which identity commitment and purpose commit-
ment shape the daily emotions experienced by adolescents. Spe-
cifically, after completing baseline measures of identity and
purpose, high school students completed diaries for 14 consecutive
days to report their positive and negative moods. On the basis of
predictions of the identity capital model, two hypotheses were
investigated. First, identity and purpose were expected to be di-
rectly associated with daily well-being, such that greater commit-
ment to each would be associated with greater PA and decreased
NA. Second, purpose commitment was expected to mediate the
relationship between identity commitment and daily moods.
Method
Students were sampled from two high schools located in the
Midwest. Overall, 56.6% of the sample was female and the aver-
age participant was 16 years old (M ⫽ 16.06 years, SD ⫽ 1.43).
The breakdown by year was fairly balanced: 19% freshmen, 27%
sophomores, 28% juniors, and 25% seniors across both schools.
Ethnic group representation mirrored that of the neighboring areas
of the schools sampled: 76.3% White, 7.1% Latino, 15.2% African
American, and less than 1% multiracial. Of the 198 students who
initially enrolled in the study, 48 provided some information on the
baseline questionnaires but chose not participate in the 2-week
daily diary phase of the study. Another 15 participants did not
complete the daily diary procedure to criterion (i.e., they did not
complete a minimum of seven of the 14 records) and thus were
omitted from our analyses. Overall participation for the daily diary
phase was 68.1% (n ⫽ 135) of the initial sample. Comparisons by
t tests between this group of 135 and those not included because of
insufficient data on either baseline or diary revealed no statistical
differences in the demographics of age, gender, year in school, or
perceptions of familial wealth. There were also no significant
differences on indices of purpose commitment or exploration
between those completing only the baseline survey and those who
also completed daily diaries.
1201
Identity as mediator
Indirect effect B SE Z 95% CI
[.11, .21] 0.02 0.01 1.58 [⫺.01, .04]
[.08, .17] ⫺0.01 0.01 ⫺1.07ⴱ [⫺.04, .01]
[.17, .39] 0.09 0.03 3.08ⴱ [.03, .15]
Procedure. In the first phase, students completed a baseline
questionnaire that assessed demographic information and youth
purpose as well as PA and NA. On completing this questionnaire,
students received a $5 gift certificate and were invited to partici-
pate in the second phase. Students deciding to participate in the
second phase were given a packet of 14 daily diaries (i.e., brief
questionnaires) on which they indicated their levels of positive and
negative emotions. Participants were instructed to complete one
diary each day for 2 weeks. To minimize variation in daily report-
ing times, participants were instructed to complete diaries at the
end of the day within 30 min of going to sleep. To aid in
compliance control, we asked students to submit completed diaries
to classroom instructors each day, and members of the research
team collected all diaries on the final day of the assessment period.
After completing the second phase, participants were compensated
$10; compensation was not tied to the number of reports com-
pleted. Of a possible 1,890 diary days, participants completed
diaries on 1,436 days (76% compliance).
Measures. Identity commitment and Purpose commitment
were assessed in baseline questionnaires with the same measures
used in Studies 1A and 1B. Reliability estimates for these trait
measures were found to be .79 for identity commitment and .88 for
purpose commitment.
Daily measures of PA and NA were assessed via daily ques-
tionnaires. Participants were asked to rate how they felt using 10
positive emotions (same as in Study 1A) and 10 negative emotions
(afraid, ashamed, distressed, guilty, hostile, irritable, jittery, ner-
vous, scared, upset). The individual items were reworded to refer
to that day (e.g., “Today I felt happy” or “Today I felt distressed”).
To estimate reliabilities for these repeated measures, test–retest
correlations were computed across weeks, yielding week-to-week
correlations for PA and NA of .83 and .86, respectively.
Analysis of daily diary data. Hypotheses were tested using
multilevel random coefficient modeling (MRCM; Raudenbush &
Bryk, 2002). Several features of MRCM make it appropriate for
diary data. First, MRCM is a tool for analyzing data that have a
hierarchical structure. In the current study, up to 14 daily obser-
vations (Level 1) were nested within each of the 135 participants
(Level 2). Second, MRCM does not require that all individuals be
measured at all occasions; therefore, data can be used from par-
ticipants who have missing data for some occasions. Third, in
MRCM, participants providing more data contribute more to the
estimation of parameters, a process termed precision weighting
(for a discussion, see Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992, pp. 32–57). By
separating true and error variance, MRCM provides more accurate
and robust estimates of standard errors than do ordinary least
1202 BURROW AND HILL
squares analyses. Finally, a multilevel-modeling approach allows
for the simultaneous estimation of within- and between-person
effects. Within-person analyses address the question of when. For
example, when youth experience a positive event, do they also
report positive emotions? Between-person equations address the
question of who. For instance, do youth who are more committed
to a purpose report more positive emotions than do those who are
less committed?
Results
Descriptive analyses. Table 5 presents descriptive statistics
for trait and daily variables of interest in Study 2. Daily mood
scores are presented as average levels across the 14-day study
period. Across participants, identity commitment and purpose
commitment were positively correlated (r ⫽ .44, p ⬍ .01). Identity
commitment was positively related to daily PA (r ⫽ .21, p ⬍ .05).
Meanwhile, purpose commitment was positively associated with
daily PA (r ⫽ .45, p ⬍ .01) and inversely related to daily NA (r ⫽
⫺.18, p ⬍ .05). No significant relationship was found between
daily PA and daily NA across the study period.
Daily analyses. The first set of analyses examined within-
person variability in average levels of daily emotions. These anal-
yses are referred to as totally unconditional (Singer & Willett,
2003) because daily averages were not modeled as a function of
other day- or person-level variables. The basic within-person (or
Level 1) model was
Daily affect ij ⫽ ␤0 j ⫹ rij.
In this model, ␤0j is a random coefficient representing the mean of
daily affect for person j (across the i days for which each person
who provided data), rij represents the error associated with daily
affect and the variance of rij constitutes the day-level residual (or
error) variance. The basic person-level (between-person or Level
2) model was
␤0 j ⫽ ␥00 ⫹ u0 j,
where ␥00 is the grand mean of the person-level means (␤0js) from
the within-person model, u0j represents the error of ␤0j, and the
variance of u0j constitutes the person-level residual variance.
We explored the nature of each daily variable of interest by
estimating between- and within-person sources of variance in these
indices from the unconditional model. Across study days, the
amount of between-person variance in PA was .44, while within-
Table 5
Intercorrelations, Means, and Standard Deviations for Study 2 Variables
Variable 1 2
1. Age —
2. Identity commitment .04
3. Purpose commitment ⫺.05
4. Average daily PA ⫺.17ⴱ
5. Average daily NA .06
M 16.06
SD 1.43
Note. PA ⫽ positive affect; NA ⫽ negative affect. All p values are two-tailed.
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05. ⴱⴱ p ⬍ .01.
person variance was .61. The amount of between-person variance
in NA was .37, while within-person variance was .40. Thus, affect
reporting showed sufficient variability at the day level to support
the modeling of additional between- and within-person relations.
Identity as a predictor of changes in daily emotions. It was
hypothesized that greater identity commitment would be associ-
ated with increases in PA and decreases NA. The model used to
test this prediction involved a daily level (Level 1) and person
level (Level 2). The Level 1 model for daily PA was
⌬PAij ⫽ ␤0 j ⫹ ␤1 jPA d⫺1 ⫹ ␤2 jNA ⫹ rij.
In this model, ␤0j is a random regression intercept representing the
mean level of changes in PA for participant j across the days (i) for
which they provided data. ␤1j is a random coefficient representing
an individual’s level of PA on the previous day (cf. Ong, Berge-
man, Bisconti, & Wallace, 2006). ␤2j represents an individual’s
daily level of NA. By including daily levels of NA in the predic-
tion of daily PA, we are effectively controlling for any shared
variance in affective states (Zautra, Affleck, Tennen, Reich, &
Davis, 2005). A separate model was run with NA as the daily
outcome (while controlling for daily PA). Finally, rij refers to the
error associated with measurement of each participant’s daily PA.
Level 2 was modeled as
␤0 j ⫽ ␥00 ⫹ ␥01Age i ⫹ ␥02Gender i ⫹ ␥03Identity i ⫹ u0 j,
such that individuals’ ␤0j (or average changes in affect) are re-
gressed on the between-person demographic variables (␥01 and
␥02), trait level of identity commitment (␥03), and a between-
persons error term (u0j). Following recommendations by Rauden-
bush and Bryk (2002), between-person variables were grand-mean
centered. All models had random intercepts and slopes were ana-
lyzed as random effects.
As shown in the Model 1 columns of Table 6, results indicated
that identity commitment was positively associated with daily PA
(␤ ⫽ .304, SE ⫽ .094, p ⬍ .01) and inversely associated with NA
(␤ ⫽ ⫺.113, SE ⫽ .051, p ⬍ .05). Consistent with expectations,
youth with a more established sense of identity reported greater
emotional well-being (i.e., increased PA and decreased NA) than
did youth with less established identities across the 14-day period.
Purpose as a mediator of the relationship between identity
and daily affect. Correlations in Table 5 reveal that purpose
commitment was significantly related to both PA and NA vari-
ables. To examine whether purpose mediated the association be-
3 4 5
—
.44ⴱⴱ —
.21ⴱ .45ⴱⴱ —
⫺.11 ⫺.18ⴱ .11 —
3.70 4.78 3.21 1.94
0.65 0.87 0.78 0.72
 PURPOSE AS IDENTITY CAPITAL
Table 6
Multilevel Model Estimates for Changes in Daily Positive and Negative Affect
Model 1
Variable ␤ SE
⌬ daily PA
Age ⫺.186ⴱⴱ
Gender .092
Daily NA ⫺.094
Identity commitment .304ⴱⴱ
Purpose commitment — .265ⴱⴱ
⌬ daily NA
Age .004
Gender .027
Daily PA ⫺.063
Identity commitment ⫺.113ⴱ
Purpose commitment — ⫺.123ⴱ
Note. PA ⫽ positive affect; NA ⫽ negative affect. Daily predictors are person centered. Dashes indicate that
purpose commitment was not included in the model.
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05. ⴱⴱ p ⬍ .01.
tween identity and daily mood, we replicated the above model, but
purpose commitment was entered as an additional Level 2 predic-
tor. Therefore, while the Level 1 equation remained the same,
Level 2 was modeled
␤0 j ⫽ ␥00 ⫹ ␥01Age i ⫹ ␥02Genderi ⫹ ␥03Identity i
⫹ ␥04Purpose i ⫹ u0 j,
such that individuals’ average change in affect (␤0j) was regressed
on the between-person demographic variables (␥01 and ␥02), level
of identity commitment (␥03), level of purpose commitment (␥04),
and a between-persons error term (u0j).
As shown in the Model 2 columns of Table 6, results indicated
that purpose commitment was positively associated with daily PA
(␤ ⫽ .265, SE ⫽ .058, p ⬍ .01) and inversely associated with NA
(␤ ⫽ ⫺.123, SE ⫽ .055, p ⬍ .05). In support of our hypothesis,
when purpose commitment was included in the model, identity
commitment was no longer a significant predictor of daily affect
variables, suggesting that purpose commitment mediated some of
the association between identity commitment and daily moods. To
determine the extent of mediation, we conducted Sobel tests (So-
bel, 1982) for daily PA and NA, separately. In these analyses,
purpose commitment was found to fully mediate the relationship
between identity commitment and daily levels of PA (Sobel’s z ⫽
4.03, p ⬍ .01) and NA (Sobel’s z ⫽ ⫺2.16, p ⬍ .05). These
findings lend support to our hypothesis that establishing a sense of
purpose is a prime mechanism through which youths’ commitment
to an identity shapes their daily well-being.
General Discussion
Although having a sense of purpose has been nominated as a
developmental asset for youth (Benson, 2006), linkages between
purpose and adjustment prior to adulthood remain mostly theoret-
ical (e.g., Damon et al., 2003). The current three studies were
designed to address empirical gaps concerning the role of purpose
in youth adjustment. The identity capital model (Côté, 1996)
provided a conceptual framework for testing the adjustment cor-
1203
Model 2
␤ SE
.049 ⫺.161ⴱⴱ .045
.104 .025 .096
.061 ⫺.094 .061
.094 .157 .107
.058
.042 ⫺.013 .044
.091 .016 .085
.034 ⫺.062 .035
.051 ⫺.050 .088
.055
relates of identity and purpose, with greater commitment to both
presumed to demonstrate more positive linkages with indicators of
well-being. Consistent with hypotheses, greater purpose commit-
ment was found to mediate the associations between identity
commitment and well-being across each study. In addition, these
results were consistent for both adolescent and emerging adult
samples and across measures of emotional adjustment, hope, and
life satisfaction. Thus, the present findings converge to suggest
that a committed sense of purpose is a developmental asset for
youth.
In Studies 1A and 1B, cross-sectional analyses revealed that
greater identity commitment and purpose commitment are adap-
tive for both adolescents and emerging adults, as evidenced by
their positive relations with several indicators of well-being. In line
with existing research on youth development (e.g., Bronk, Hill,
Lapsley, Talib, & Finch, 2009; Burrow et al., 2010; Meeus et al.,
1999; Schwartz et al., 2005), the current findings suggest that
establishing who one is and a direction for one’s life contribute
meaningfully to youths’ self-reported happiness, life satisfaction,
and hope. Collaborating existing theory on identity capital (Côté,
1997), the specific finding that purpose was linked with a greater
sense of agency establishes purpose as an asset that promotes
greater wherewithal to overcome life’s challenges. Furthermore,
the demonstrated linkages between identity, purpose, and well-
being may also lend some support for Erikson’s (1968) theoretical
notion that purpose plays an important role in the resolution of
identity crises. In particular, evidence produced by mediational
analyses implicates purpose commitment as a key mechanism by
which youths’ identity corresponds with positive outcomes. This
uncovered process converges with recent findings (e.g., Kiang and
Fuligni, 2010) and suggests that affirming who one is may include
establishing a particular direction in life, which may result in more
selective and positive experiences. Because identity was assessed
globally in the current study, our findings support a broad under-
standing of how defining oneself, even generally, may afford
youth a sense of direction and personal agency (Schwartz, 2007).
In addition, documenting this mediation effect among adolescent
1204 BURROW AND HILL
and emerging adult samples may underscore purpose, a construct
distinguishable from meaning, as a particularly salient resource to
the extent that it helps individuals negotiate challenges emblematic
of these formative developmental periods.
A key objective of the current research was to extend our
understanding of how individual differences in identity and
purpose influence youths’ adjustment in everyday life. The pro-
spective diary approach used in Study 2 allowed us to model
within-person variability in daily emotions as a function of
between-person differences in identity commitment and purpose
commitment. Our prediction that identity and purpose would both
predict greater emotional well-being was supported. Both compo-
nents contributed to day-to-day increases in PA, and purpose
commitment led to systematic decreases in NA across the study
days. Although these findings corroborate results noted in Studies
1A and 1B, it is important to underscore their unique contribution
to positive youth development literature. Namely, the fact that
identity and purpose activated positive changes in daily emotional
statuses points to their capacity to positively impact how youth feel
at given points in time.
In addition, findings revealed that purpose serves as a conduit
through which identity impacts increases in well-being at the daily
level. Situated within the identity capital model, adolescents who
have committed to a purpose appear to benefit from this committed
sense of direction, as it regulates their affect in positive ways.
Perhaps by intentionally selecting certain activities or engage-
ments, these youth are able to feel better than those who have not
yet determined a meaningful direction in life. The observation that
having a purpose affords youth more positive outcomes in general
and improved daily well-being mirrors what theorists have de-
scribed as thriving, insofar that youth become contributors to their
own positive development (Damon, 2008; Lerner, Dowling, &
Anderson, 2003; Lerner, Theokas, & Jelicic, 2005). By selecting
and following a vision for themselves, youth might create trajec-
tories of opportunities that they ultimately feel comfortable pur-
suing. Considering the broad evidence that adolescence is a period
of increased negative emotions (Larson, Moneta, Richards, &
Wilson, 2002), demonstrating that committing to a purpose works
to countermand this normative trend underscores its distinction as
a developmental asset. Longitudinal studies capable of delineating
the contributions of purpose to youth outcomes over time are
ultimately required, however, to validate its designation as such.
Collectively, our findings offer empirical footing for the adap-
tive role of purpose for youth adjustment. However, we note
several limitations that warrant attention and might be addressed in
future research. First, although we documented the extent to which
youth had committed to a purpose, we did not establish the types
of purposes that youth identified for themselves. Hill, Burrow,
O’Dell, and Thornton (2010) found that high school students
define purpose within a variety of domains, ranging from moral or
religious commitments to occupational and financial goals to plans
for civic engagement. Indeed, qualitative distinctions in the types
of purposes to which youth commit have been shown to differen-
tially predict patterns of adjustment (Hill et al., 2010). Second,
daily outcomes assessed in Study 2 were limited to self-reported
moods. It might be useful to extend such analyses to include the
daily events in which youth are engaged. We know that youth
spend considerable amounts of time with peers (Steinberg, 2001),
alone (Larson, Richards, Sims, & Dworkin, 2001), and working
independently (Csikszentmihalyi & Hunter, 2003; Gross, 2004).
How purpose influences the ways youth spend their time may have
a particularly important significance for designing and tailoring
youth development programs. Charting participation in daily
events and activities may uncover important linkages to the types
of experiences that youth with a committed sense of purpose are
most likely to pursue.
Third, personality variables that have occasionally demonstrated
relationships with individuals’ daily moods were not assessed.
Specifically, trait levels of neuroticism and extraversion were not
included as predictors of daily affect, despite evidence that they
might account for some variance in these outcomes (Bolger &
Zuckerman, 1995; Zautra et al., 2005). It is noteworthy that we did
control for levels of PA or NA (in the prediction of the opposite
emotion) to account for any variance they might share when
activated within a participant. However, the extent to which dif-
ferences in youths’ personality and other traits contour how pur-
pose functions remains fertile ground for study. Last, the general-
izability of our findings is qualified by our samples. Participants
were recruited from either a public school or private high schools
with a Catholic religious orientation. Although there were no
statistically significant differences between the high school types
in Study 2, substantial diversity exists in the organizational struc-
tures, curricula content, and pedagogies of the high schools in
American society. For example, students attending schools with
explicit religious affiliations may provide unique pathways to
purpose commitment (e.g., teaching that purpose is conferred by a
higher power), compared with those without such affiliation.1
Against reducing such differences to statistical noise to be con-
trolled, modeling school differences as meaningful predictors may
offer important insights into contextual factors that are rich for
enhancing youths’ senses of purpose.
In conclusion, the recent expansion of the understanding of
adolescence and emerging adulthood as periods of capacity build-
ing and personal potential (Arnett, 2000; Benson, 2006; Damon &
Gregory, 2003) has directed attention to factors that promote
positive development. Research has provided an increasing
amount of evidence that youths’ construction of who they are runs
parallel to what they will ultimately do for themselves and others
(Lerner et al., 2003). Thus, we believe that sustained inquiry into
how adolescents develop a sense of purpose in life and, in turn,
invest that sense to promote opportunistic growth and adjustment
constitutes an important research agenda going forward.
1
We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.
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Received August 2, 2010
Revision received December 20, 2010
Accepted January 27, 2011 䡲