Changes in Purpose in Life Across the First Year of University Associate With End of First Year Psychological and Academic Outcomes

A sense of purpose in life, defined as a dispositional tendency to pursue goals and activities in line with one’s overarching life direction, has been discussed as a key individual difference factor to foster in today’s college students. However, few studies have inspected the benefits of purpose change specifically in a college student sample. The present study sought to model changes in students’ sense of purpose in life across the first year of college and use this change to predict academic performance and psychosocial indicators of well-being at the end of that first year in a representative sample of a cohort (2019-2020) of undergraduates from a large Appalachian university (N = 775, 90.25% White, 49.67% female). Using structural equation modeling to test linear growth curves, results demonstrated that both student’s initial level and increases over time in purpose in life were robustly associated with better academic and psychosocial outcomes. These novel findings suggest that a sense of purpose in life is an important individual difference factor to cultivate in college students, and that facilitation of a strong sense of purpose in life could promote student success and well-being.