The Satisfaction With Life Scale Examining Construct ValidityExamining Construct Validity

The views expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies of Statistics Netherlands Explanation of symbols. data not available * provisional gure ** revised provisional gure (but not dee nite) x publication prohibited (conn dential gure) – nil – (between two gures) inclusive 0 (0.0) less than half of unit concerned empty cell not applicable Due to rounding, some totals may not correspond with the sum of the separate gures. Summary This report describes the validity testing of a multi-item scale of global life satisfaction, namely the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). This scale has been proposed as an alternative to single-item life satisfaction measures. As expected, the scale has sufficient construct validity and consists of one underlying dimension. The SWLS is significantly related to an alternative global life satisfaction measure, which indicates convergent validity. However, this correlation is rather low, which raises the question whether the SWLS measures the same as the single-item life satisfaction measure. The correlation of the SWLS with an alternative well-being measure (i.e. mental health index) is lower than the correlation with global life satisfaction. This provides evidence of discriminant validity. Other aspects related to well-being, such as health and illness, also correlate significantly with the SWLS. This shows nomological validity. However, the SWLS also has a number of serious shortcomings. It suffers from data collection mode effects and the data show that a specific group of respondents misinterprets the scale. Furthermore, the SWLS and the single-item global life satisfaction are almost equally related to other aspects that predict well-being. Therefore, the SWLS has no clear added value as an alternative of the single-item life satisfaction. In conclusion, it is recommended that a single-item measure be used instead of the SWLS.