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The Satisfaction with Life Scale in Adolescent Samples: Measurement Invariance across 24 Countries and Regions, Age, and Gender

Jovanović V 1 , Rudnev M 2 , Arslan G 3 , Buzea C 4 , Dimitrova R 5 , Góngora V 6 Show all authors , Guse T 7 , Ho RTH 8 , Iqbal N 9 , Jámbori S 10 , Jhang FH 11 , Kaniušonytė G 12 , Li J 13 , Lim YJ 14 , Lodi E 15 , Mannerström R 16 , Marcionetti J 17 , Neto F 18 , Osin E 19 , Park J 20 , Fonseca-Pedrero E 21 , Piotrowski J 22 , Proctor C 23 , Rahmandani A 24 , Salmela-Aro K 16 , Ortuño-Sierra J 21 , Stefenel D 25 , Sugimura K 26 , Tan SA 27 , Wang S 28 , Yip PSF 8 , Żemojtel-Piotrowska M 22 , Žukauskienė R 12

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Psychology, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
  • 2 HSE University, Moscow, Russia
  • 3 Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Burdur, Turkey
  • 4 Department of Social Sciences and Communication, Transilvania University of Brasov, Brașov, Romania
  • 5 Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 6 National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 7 Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
  • 8 Department of Social Work & Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • 9 Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
  • 10 Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
  • 11 Department of Law and Social Work, Minjiang University, Fuzhou, China
  • 12 Institute of Psychology, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • 13 College of Teacher Education, Dali University, Dali, China
  • 14 Department of Psychology, Daegu University, Gyeongsan, South Korea
  • 15 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
  • 16 Department of Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  • 17 Department of Education and Learning, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Locarno, Switzerland
  • 18 Department of Psychology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
  • 19 International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation, HSE University, Moscow, Russia
  • 20 Department of Management, NUCB Business School, Nagoya, Japan
  • 21 Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja, Logroño, Spain
  • 22 Institute of Psychology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
  • 23 Positive Psychology Research Centre, St Saviour, Guernsey
  • 24 Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia
  • 25 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania
  • 26 Department of Psychology, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan
  • 27 Department of Psychology and Counselling, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
  • 28 Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Appl Res Qual Life, 2022 Jan 24.
PMID: 35096193 DOI: 10.1007/s11482-021-10024-w

Abstract

Measurement of adolescent life satisfaction across cultures has not received much attention in previous empirical research. The present study evaluated measurement invariance of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) among adolescents in 24 countries and regions (N = 22,710; age range = 13-19 years; 53% female). A single-factor model with residual covariance between a pair of items tapping past life satisfaction fitted well in 19 countries and regions and showed a partial metric invariance. In a subset of nine countries and regions, partial scalar invariance was supported. Partial metric invariance across all 24 countries and regions was achieved when custom model modifications in five countries and regions were included. Three SWLS items showed evidence of noninvariance across cultures. The measurement model was found to operate similarly across gender and age. Our findings suggest that caution is needed when using the SWLS for measuring life satisfaction among adolescents from different cultures.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11482-021-10024-w.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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