Measurement invariance of the subjective happiness scale across countries, gender, age, and time

Zager Kocjan, Gaja (author), Jose, Paul Easton (author), Sočan, Gregor (author), Avsec, Andreja (author)

The purpose of this study was to examine measurement invariance of the Subjective Happiness Scale across countries, gender, and age groups and across time by multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Altogether, 4,977 participants from nine European, American, and Australian countries were included in the study. Our results revealed that both configural and metric invariance held across countries, but scalar invariance was only partially confirmed with one item yielding varying intercepts in different countries. Measurement invariance was also confirmed across gender and age groups. Longitudinal measurement invariance was examined on a subsample of 478 English-speaking participants and was fully confirmed across five consecutive assessment points. Factor means were compared between groups and across time, and good convergent validity of the Subjective Happiness Scale was found in relation to a measure of temporal satisfaction with life. Overall, our results demonstrate that self-reported happiness was measured similarly in nine different countries, gender and age groups and over time, and provide a solid foundation for meaningful cross-group and cross-time comparisons in subjective happiness.

• Language: English
• Keywords: positive psychology, Subjective Happiness Scale, SHS, happiness, well-being, measurement invariance, longitudinal measurement invariance, group comparison, group diffrences, Temporal Satisfaction with Life Scale, TSWLS
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2022
• Number of pages: Str. 826–841
• Numbering: Vol. 29, iss. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-124980
• UDC: 159.923.072
• ISSN on article: 1073-1911
• DOI: 10.1177/1073191121993558
• COBISS.SI-ID: 51599875
• Publication date in RUL: 26.02.2021

ZAGER KOCJAN, Gaja, JOSE, Paul Easton, SOČAN, Gregor and AVSEC, Andreja, 2022, Measurement invariance of the subjective happiness scale across countries, gender, age, and time. Assessment [online]. 2022. Vol. 29, no. 4. [Accessed 30 May 2025]. DOI 10.1177/1073191121993558. Retrieved from: https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/IzpisGradiva.php?lang=eng&id=124980

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Assessment
• Shortened title: Assessment
• Publisher: SAGE, American Psychological Association, Society for Clinical Psychology (Division 12), Section IX (Assessment)
• ISSN: 1073-1911
• COBISS.SI-ID: 512150041

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: pozitivna psihologija, lestvica subjektivne sreče SHS, sreča, blagostanje, merska invariantnost, vzdolžna merska invariantnost, primerjava skupin, razlike med skupinami

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P5-0110
• Name: Psihološki in nevroznanstveni vidiki kognicije

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P5-0062
• Name: Uporabna razvojna psihologija