Sources of Life Strengths Appraisal Scale: A Multidimensional Approach to Assessing Older Adults’ Perceived Sources of Life Strengths

Table 1

Factor structure of the SLSAS for exploratory factorial analysis (EFA) with samples one and two (𝑁=240) combined and principal component analysis (PCA) with sample three (𝑁=190).

SLSAS scale items^a	I		II		III		IV		V		VI		VII		VIII		IX		X		Factor VIII; Factor IX
										Factor loadings^b
	EFA	PCA	EFA	PCA	EFA	PCA	EFA	PCA	EFA	PCA	EFA	PCA	EFA	PCA	EFA	PCA	EFA	PCA	EFA	PFA
Personal self-efficacy beliefs
Ability to overcome problems	.85	.79
Ability to succeed	.76	.74
High motivation to excel	.72	.77
Excellent knowledge	.77	.82
Ability to obtain information	.69	.67
Personal maturity
Strong meaning for life			.78	.82
Awareness of limitations			.82	.79
Well-defined goals	.47		.61	.51
Desire for spirituality			.70	.73
Accepting of negative consequences			.79	.75
Personal traits
Courageous					.46	.50
Truthfulness and honesty					.75	.75
Autonomous and self-reliant					.81	.81
Responsible					.59	.56
Faithful and loyal					.79	.77
Self-care routines
Diligent							.81	.76
Follow sound diet regimen							.69	.69
Persistent in task completion							.79	.75
Exercise regularly							.69	.77
Devotional prayer regularly							.70	.76
Personal commitments
Desire to make a positive social impact									.77	.75
Committed to personal mission									.70	.72
Committed to leaving legacy									.70	.70
Committed to life of service									.79	.77
Committed to imparting education to  the young									.69	.63
Personal achievements
Achieved important career/life goals											.61	.48
Achieved social success											.49
Achieved family respect											.60	.54
Achieved financial success											.49
Achieved outside (external)  recognition											.47	.42
Attitudes toward Life
Optimistic and hopeful for future													.72	.78
Life is a challenge	.46												.69	.72
Life is an adventure													.73	.74
Believe there is solution to all problems													.81	.74
Believe human nature is good													.88	.80
Social support: informal sources
Intimate relationships															.88	.83
Friends and associates															.75	.72
Formal social service agency															.69	.66
Seniors’ associations and clubs															.70	.69
Religious institutions															.72	.71
Monetary status
Having sound investments																	.81	.87
Having stable credit rating																	.69	.71
Having good prospects for inheritance																	.72	.69
Having steady income from pension																	.71	.75
Having means for more earnings																	.69	.62
Continuity in mid-life roles
Opportunity to continue in mid-life  careers and positions																			.74	.72
Continuing opportunity for achieving  recognition and awards for past  achievements																			.90	.87
Continuing opportunity to be involved  in parenting function																			.79	.79
Continuing opportunity to pursue  mid-life hobbies/interest.																			.73	.77
Continuing opportunity to pursue  mid-life friendships																			.81	.87

aSLSAS items are identified by key words in item. bAll loadings > 0.40 are shown.
EFA was conducted on 60 items: ten items were subsequently dropped because of unacceptably high item-total correlations above 0.80. The first component had an explained variance of 38% followed by five more components accounting for a cumulative variance of 20% and the last four providing a cumulative variance of 12% (total percent of explained variance is 70).
PCA was conducted on 50 items: the first component had an explained variance of 32% followed by five more accounting for a cumulative variance of 23% and the last four providing a cumulative variance of 15% (total percent of explained variance = 70).
Note: Table 1 shows factor loadings for only those 50 items that were used in both the EFA and PCA.