article · PLoS ONE
An evaluation of the Satisfaction With Life Scale examined its measurement performance across 56,968 participants from 65 nations and 40 languages, as well as across diverse gender identities and age groups. Using data gathered between 2020 and 2022, the analysis established that the scale reliably measures a single, common dimension of life satisfaction across these varied demographics and survey translations. Metric invariance held universally, and scalar invariance was fully or partially established across almost all studied groups. Differences in latent scores were minimal across ages and gender identities, but varied substantially by nation and language. Globally, higher life satisfaction linked consistently to stronger financial security and committed or married relationship status.
Measuring well-being accurately across diverse global populations requires tools that work identically in different languages and cultures. Demonstrating that this standard scale functions consistently regardless of an individual's country, language, age, or gender identity allows international practitioners and researchers to compare subjective well-being reliably and evaluate targeted social interventions globally.
The findings validate a cross-cultural assessment tool ready for immediate real-world use by international practitioners, organisations, and public health programmes targeting subjective well-being. By confirming the measurement reliability of the survey across diverse languages and demographic segments, the work provides a standardised basis for international workplace well-being audits and health assessment platforms, operating as an already tested and applied psychometric framework.
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The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) is a widely used self-report measure of subjective well-being, but studies of its measurement invariance across a large number of nations remain limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset-with data collected between 2020 and 2022 -to assess measurement invariance of the SWLS across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups (N = 56,968). All participants completed the SWLS under largely uniform conditions. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that configural and metric invariance was upheld across all nations, languages, gender identities, and age groups, suggesting that the unidimensional SWLS model has universal applicability. Full scalar invariance was achieved across gender identities and age groups. Based on alignment optimisation methods, partial scalar invariance was achieved across all but three national groups and across all languages represented in the BINS. There were large differences in latent SWLS means across nations and languages, but negligible-to-small differences across gender identities and age groups. Across nations, greater life satisfaction was significantly associated with greater financial security and being in a committed relationship or married. The results of this study suggest that the SWLS largely assesses a common unidimensional construct of life satisfaction irrespective of respondent characteristics (i.e., national group, gender identities, and age group) or survey presentation (i.e., survey language). This has important implications for the assessment of life satisfaction across nations and provides information that will be useful for practitioners aiming to promote subjective well-being internationally.
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DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313107
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