Abstract
This report examines the measurement invariance of the Personal Well-being Index with 8 items (PWI-8). University students (N = 5731) from 26 countries completed the measure either through paper and pencil or electronic mode. We examined uni-dimensional structure of PWI and performed a Multi-group CFA to assess the measurement invariance across the 26 countries, using conventional approach and the alignment procedure. The findings provide evidence of configural and partial metric invariance, as well as partial scalar invariance across samples. The findings suggest that PWI-8 can be used to examine correlates of life satisfaction across all included countries, however it is impossible to compare raw scores across countries.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2014). Multiple-group factor analysis alignment. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21, 1–14. doi:10.1080/10705511.2014.919210.
Baltatescu, S. (2014). Romanian-Hungarian cross-border region, Personal well-being index. In Alex C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research (pp. 5598–5605). Netherlands: Springer.
Bond, M. H. (1991). Beyond the Chinese face: Insights from psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bricker-Katz, G., Lincoln, M., & McCabe, P. (2009). A Life-time of stuttering: How emotional reactions to stuttering impact activities and participation in older people. Disability and Rehabilitation, 31, 1742–1752. doi:10.1080/09638280902738672.
Brown, T. A. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.
Byrne, B. N. (2012). Structural Equation modelling with mplus. New York: Routledge.
Casas, F., González, M., Figuer, C., & Malo, S. (2009). Satisfaction with spirituality and with religion, and personal well-being among Spanish adolescents and young university students. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 4(1), 23–45.
Casas, F., Bello, A., González, M., & Aligué, M. (2012). Personal well-being among Spanish adolescents. Journal of Social Research and Policy, 3, 19–45. doi:10.1007/s11482-009-9066-x.
Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 14, 464–504.
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9, 233–255. doi:10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5.
Cummins, R. A., Eckersley, R., Pallant, J., Van Vugt, J., & Misajon, R. (2003). Developing a national index of subjective wellbeing: The Australian unity wellbeing index. Social Indicators Research, 64, 159–190. doi:10.1023/A:1024704320683.
Davidov, E., Meuleman, B., Cieciuch, J., Schmidt, P., & Billiet, J. (2014). Measurement equivalence in cross-national research. Annual Review of Sociology, 40, 55–75. doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043137.
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542–575.
Diener, E., Horowitz, J., & Emmons, R. A. (1985). Happiness of the very wealthy. Social Indicators Research, 16, 263–274.
Engel, L., & Cummins, R. A. (2011). Impact of dose adjustment for normal eating in Australia (OzDAFNE) on subjective wellbeing, coping resources and negative affect in adults with type 1 diabetes: A prospective comparison study. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 91, 271–279. doi:10.1016/j.diabres.2010.11.023.
Forjaz, F. M., Prieto-Flores, M. E., Ayala, A., Rodriguez-Blazquez, C., Fernandez-Mayoralas, G., Rojo-Perez, F., et al. (2011). Measurement properties of the community wellbeing index in older adults. Quality of Life Research, 20, 733–743. doi:10.1007/s11136-010-9794-2.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modelling, 6, 1–55.
Huntington, S. (1996). The clash of civilizations and remaking of world order. New York: Touchstone.
International Wellbeing Group (2006). Personal wellbeing index. Melbourne: Australian Centre on Quality of Life, Deakin University. Retrieved from http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/instruments/wellbeing_index.htm.
International Wellbeing Group (2013). Personal wellbeing index: 5th edition. Melbourne: Australian Centre on Quality of Life, Deakin University. Retrieved from http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/instruments/wellbeingindex/index.php.
Lance, C. E., Butts, M. M., & Michels, L. C. (2006). The sources of four commonly reported cut-off criteria: What did they really say? Organizational Research Methods, 9, 202–220. doi:10.1177/1094428105284919.
Lau, A. L. D., Cummins, R. A., & McPherson, W. (2005). An Investigation into the cross-cultural equivalence of the personal wellbeing index. Social Indicators Research, 72, 403–430.
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Oishi, S. (2010). Culture and well-being: Conceptual and methodological issues. In E. Diener, J. F. Helliwell, & D. Kahneman (Eds.), International differences in well-being (pp. 34–69). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Piedmont, R. L., & Friedman, P. (2012). Spirituality, religiosity and subjective well-being. In K. C. Land, A. C. Michalos, & M. J. Sirgy (Eds.), Handbook of social indicators and quality of life research (pp. 313–329). Netherlands: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2421-1.
Ponizovsky, Y., Dimitrova, R., Schachner, M. K., & Van de Schoot, R. (2013). The satisfaction with life scale: Measurement invariance across immigrant groups. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10, 526–532. doi:10.1080/17405629.2012.707778.
Sarriera, J. C., Casas, F., Alfaro, J., Bedin, L., Strelhow, M. R., Abs, D., et al. (2014). Psychometric properties of the personal wellbeing index in Brazilian and Chilean adolescents including spirituality and religion. Psychology/Psicologia Refl exão e Crítica, 27, 710–719. doi:10.1590/1678-7153.201427411.
Satorra, A., & Bentler, P. M. (1994). Corrections to test statistics and standard errors in covariance structure analysis. In A. von Eye & C. C. Clogg (Eds.), Latent variables analysis: Applications for developmental research (pp. 399–419). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Sirgy, M. J. (2012). The psychology of quality of life. Hedonic well-being, life satisfaction, and eudaimonia. New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4405-9.
Tomyn, A. J., Norrish, J. M., & Cummins, R. A. (2011). The subjective wellbeing of indigenous Australian adolescents: validating the personal wellbeing index—school children. Social Indicators Research, 103, 405–411. doi:10.1007/s11205-011-9970-y.
Tucker, K. L., Ozer, D. J., Lyubomirsky, S., & Boehm, J. K. (2006). Testing for measurement invariance in the satisfaction with life scale: A comparison of Russians and North Americans. Social Indicators Research, 78, 341–360.
Werner, S. (2012). Subjective well-being, hope, and needs of individuals with serious mentalillness. Psychiatry Research, 196, 214–219. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2011.10.012.
Whisman, M. A., & Judd, C. M. (2016). A cross-national analysis of measurement invariance of the satisfaction with life scale. Psychological Assessment, 28(2), 239–244.
Acknowledgments
The work of Jarosław P. Piotrowski was supported by research Grant rewarded by University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poznan Faculty. The work of Jan Cieciuch was supported by grants 2014/14/M/HS6/00919 from the National Science Centre, Poland.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Order of authors reflects their contribution to the work.
Electronic Supplementary Material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Żemojtel-Piotrowska, M., Piotrowski, J.P., Cieciuch, J. et al. Measurement Invariance of Personal Well-Being Index (PWI-8) Across 26 Countries. J Happiness Stud 18, 1697–1711 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9795-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9795-0