Psychometric Properties of the Diener Satisfaction With Life Scale With Five Response Options Applied to the Colombian Population

Abstract

Introduction: The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin in 1985, comprises five items with seven response options in terms of agreement–disagreement. Recently, there has been a suggestion to reduce the response options of the SWLS to optimize its applicability in different cultural contexts.Objective: The study aims to assess the psychometric properties of the SWLS with five response options in the Colombian population. Specifically, we studied the dimensionality, invariance by gender and age (among a group of adolescents and emerging adults under 25 years and a group of adults of intermediate age and established adulthood under 59 years), convergent validity (with optimism), and divergent (with pessimism) and concurrent validity with other measures of well-being (flourishing, positive, and negative affects).Methodology: This project was a cross-sectional study using a non-probabilistic sample of the general population. Participants were included if they identified themselves as Colombian and were at least 18 years of age. The final sample comprised 1,255 participants. The average age was 25.62 years (SD = 8.60) ranging from 18 to 67 years of age, and 35.8% of the participants were men. In addition to SWLS, we used the Flourishing Scale (FS), Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), and Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE).Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.842), composite reliability (0.851), and average variance extracted (0.537) showed very good values. CFA was conducted to test the one-dimensional structure of FS, showing excellent goodness of fit [χ(5)2 = 15.774, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.992, TLI = 0.985, RMSEA = 0.042, 90% RMSEA CI (0.020, 0.066), and SRMR = 0.016]. The correlations calculated among life satisfaction (SWLS) with flourishing (FS), positive and negative affects (SPANE), optimism, and pessimism (LOT-R) were statistically significant and as expected. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender and age were confirmed. Percentiles were provided for the total score and for age.Conclusions: The SWLS with five response options has adequate psychometric properties in the Colombian population, and the use of this version (with 5 response options) is recommended due to its greater applicability.

Psychometric Properties and Measurement Invariance by Gender of the Abbreviated Three-Item Version of the Satisfaction with Life Scale in a Colombian Sample

“…To date, the SWLS with five response options has already been used in the Spanish-speaking population, instead of the seven of the original scale [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], consistently showing good psychometric properties. The results of this study indicate that the reduced version of this scale made up of only three items, and with only five response options, has shown good psychometric properties.…”

“…The original version uses a 7-point Likert-type scale that ranges from 1-strongly disagree to 7-strongly agree. To carry out this study, the version adapted for the Colombian population with 5 response options has been used [ 31 ], based on the version for the Spanish population [ 26 ]. In this version, the response scale ranges between 1-strongly disagree, and 5-strongly agree, so that the higher the score, greater satisfaction with life is perceived.…”

“…In a cross-cultural measurement invariance study of the SWLS using Italian and African samples, it was found that the 7-point response scale was not sensitive to detecting low levels of life satisfaction, and they recommended using fewer response options, especially for the South African population [ 25 ]. Several studies in Spanish-speaking populations have used the 5-item SWLS with five response options instead of the seven in the original scale, both in Spain and in other Latin American countries [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], always showing good psychometric properties. Furthermore, we recently found excellent psychometric properties in the five-choice version of the SWLS in a large sample of Colombians [ 31 ].…”

“…Several studies in Spanish-speaking populations have used the 5-item SWLS with five response options instead of the seven in the original scale, both in Spain and in other Latin American countries [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], always showing good psychometric properties. Furthermore, we recently found excellent psychometric properties in the five-choice version of the SWLS in a large sample of Colombians [ 31 ].…”

Measurement Invariance and Construct Validity of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) in Community Volunteers in Vietnam

“…The SWLS has even been translated into American Sign Language [ 14 ]. The measure exists with different response options [ 15 ] or temporal orientation [ 3 ] and has not only been administered to healthy (non-patient) participants in (inter)national surveys but also to special populations [ 3 ], including psychiatric patients [ 3 , 16 ], breast cancer patients [ 17 ], people with traumatic brain, spinal cord, or burn injury [ 18 ]; persons with multiple sclerosis [ 19 ], and patients with Parkinson’s disease [ 20 ]. SWLS scores have been shown to possess satisfactory reliability as estimated with McDonald’s omega [ 17 ].…”