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

Veljko Jovanović; Maksim Rudnev; Gökmen Arslan; Carmen Buzea; Radosveta Dimitrova; Vanesa Góngora; Tharina Guse; Rainbow T H Ho; Naved Iqbal; Szilvia Jámbori; Fang-Hua Jhang; Goda Kaniušonytė; Jingguang Li; Young-Jin Lim; Ernesto Lodi; Rasmus Mannerström; Jenny Marcionetti; Felix Neto; Evgeny Osin; Joonha Park; Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero; Jarosław Piotrowski; Carmel Proctor; Amalia Rahmandani; Katariina Salmela-Aro; Javier Ortuño-Sierra; Delia Stefenel; Kazumi Sugimura; Soon Aun Tan; Song Wang; Paul S F Yip; Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska; Rita Žukauskienė

doi:10.1007/s11482-021-10024-w

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

Appl Res Qual Life. 2022;17(4):2139-2161. doi: 10.1007/s11482-021-10024-w. Epub 2022 Jan 24.

Authors

Veljko Jovanović¹, Maksim Rudnev², Gökmen Arslan³, Carmen Buzea⁴, Radosveta Dimitrova⁵, Vanesa Góngora^{6

7}, Tharina Guse⁸, Rainbow T H Ho^{9

10}, Naved Iqbal¹¹, Szilvia Jámbori¹², Fang-Hua Jhang¹³, Goda Kaniušonytė¹⁴, Jingguang Li¹⁵, Young-Jin Lim¹⁶, Ernesto Lodi¹⁷, Rasmus Mannerström¹⁸, Jenny Marcionetti¹⁹, Felix Neto²⁰, Evgeny Osin^{21

22}, Joonha Park²³, Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero²⁴, Jarosław Piotrowski²⁵, Carmel Proctor²⁶, Amalia Rahmandani²⁷, Katariina Salmela-Aro¹⁸, Javier Ortuño-Sierra²⁴, Delia Stefenel²⁸, Kazumi Sugimura²⁹, Soon Aun Tan³⁰, Song Wang³¹, Paul S F Yip⁹, Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska²⁵, Rita Žukauskienė¹⁴

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 Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
⁹ Department of Social Work & Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
¹⁰ Centre On Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
¹¹ Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.
¹² Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
¹³ Department of Law and Social Work, Minjiang University, Fuzhou, China.
¹⁴ Institute of Psychology, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
¹⁵ College of Teacher Education, Dali University, Dali, China.
¹⁶ Department of Psychology, Daegu University, Gyeongsan, South Korea.
¹⁷ Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
¹⁸ Department of Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
¹⁹ Department of Education and Learning, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Locarno, Switzerland.
²⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
²¹ International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation, HSE University, Moscow, Russia.
²² Laboratory LINP-2, Université Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France.
²³ Department of Management, NUCB Business School, Nagoya, Japan.
²⁴ Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja, Logroño, Spain.
²⁵ Institute of Psychology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
²⁶ Positive Psychology Research Centre, St Saviour, Guernsey.
²⁷ Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia.
²⁸ Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania.
²⁹ Department of Psychology, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan.
³⁰ Department of Psychology and Counselling, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia.
³¹ Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

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.

Keywords: Adolescence; Culture; Life satisfaction; Measurement invariance; Satisfaction with Life Scale.