Life satisfaction around the world: Measurement invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups
Abstract
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.
Article Details
Authors (253)
Viren Swami
Stefan Stieger
Martin Voracek
Toivo Aavik
Hamed Abdollahpour Ranjbar
Sulaiman Olanrewaju Adebayo
Department of Psychology, Ekiti State University
Reza Afhami
Oli Ahmed
Annie Aimé
Marwan Akel
Hussam Al Halbusi
George Alexias
Khawla F. Ali
Nursel Alp-Dal
Anas B. Alsalhani
Sara Álvarez-Solas
Ana Carolina Soares Amaral
Sonny Andrianto
Trefor Aspden
Marios Argyrides
John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta
Department of Psychology, De La Salle University
Stephen Atkin
Olusola Ayandele
Migle Baceviciene
Radvan Bahbouh
Andrea Ballesio
David Barron
Ashleigh Bellard
Sóley Sesselja Bender
Kerime Derya Beydaǧ
Gorana Birovljević
Marie-Ève Blackburn
Teresita Borja-Alvarez
Joanna Borowiec
Miroslava Bozogáňová
Solfrid Bratland-Sanda
Matthew H. E. M. Browning
Anna Brytek-Matera
Marina Burakova
Yeliz Çakır-Koçak
Pablo Camacho
Vittorio Emanuele Camilleri
Valentina Cazzato
Silvia Cerea
Apitchaya Chaiwutikornwanich
Trawin Chaleeraktrakoon
Department of Psychology, Thammasat University
Tim Chambers
Qing-Wei Chen
Xin Chen
Chin-Lung Chien
Phatthanakit Chobthamkit
Department of Psychology, Thammasat University
Bovornpot Choompunuch
Emilio J. Compte
Jennifer Corrigan
Getrude Cosmas
Richard G. Cowden
Kamila Czepczor-Bernat
Marcin Czub
Wanderson Roberto da Silva
Mahboubeh Dadfar
Simon E. Dalley
Lionel Dany
Jesus Alfonso D. Datu
Pedro Henrique Berbert de Carvalho
Gabriel Lins de Holanda Coelho
Avila Odia S. De Jesus
Sonia Harzallah Debbabi
Sandesh Dhakal
Central Department of Psychology, Tribhuvan University
Francesca Di Bernardo
Donka D. Dimitrova
Jacinthe Dion
Barnaby Dixson
Stacey M. Donofrio
Marius Drysch
Hongfei Du
Angel M. Dzhambov
Claire El-Jor
Violeta Enea
Mehmet Eskin
Farinaz Farbod
Lorleen Farrugia
Leonie Fian
Maryanne L. Fisher
Michał Folwarczny
David A. Frederick
Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz
Adrian Furnham
Antonio Alías García
Shulamit Geller
Marta Ghisi
Alireza Ghorbani
Maria Angeles Gomez Martinez
Sarah Gradidge
Sylvie Graf
Caterina Grano
Gyöngyvér Gyene
Souheil Hallit
Motasem Hamdan
Jonathan E. Handelzalts
Paul H. P. Hanel
Steven R. Hawks
Issa Hekmati
Mai Helmy
Department of Psychology, College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University
Tetiana Hill
Farah Hina
Geraldine Holenweger
Martina Hřebíčková
Olasupo Augustine Ijabadeniyi
Asma Imam
Başak İnce
Natalia Irrazabal
Rasa Jankauskiene
Ding-Yu Jiang
Micaela Jiménez-Borja
Verónica Jiménez-Borja
Evan M. Johnson
Veljko Jovanović
Marija Jović
Marko Jović
Alessandra Costa Pereira Junqueira
Lisa-Marie Kahle
Adam Kantanista
Ahmet Karakiraz
Ayşe Nur Karkin
Erich Kasten
Salam Khatib
Nuannut Khieowan
Patricia Joseph Kimong
Litza Kiropoulos
Joshua Knittel
Neena Kohli
Mirjam Koprivnik
Aituar Kospakov
Magdalena Król-Zielińska
Isabel Krug
Garry Kuan
Yee Cheng Kueh
Omar Kujan
Miljana Kukić
Sanjay Kumar
Vipul Kumar
Nishtha Lamba
Mary Anne Lauri
Maria Fernanda Laus
Liza April LeBlanc
Hyejoo J. Lee
Małgorzata Lipowska
Mariusz Lipowski
Caterina Lombardo
Andrea Lukács
Christophe Maïano
Sadia Malik
Mandar Manjary
Lidia Márquez Baldó
Martha Martinez-Banfi
Karlijn Massar
Camilla Matera
Olivia McAnirlin
Moisés Roberto Mebarak
Anwar Mechri
Juliana Fernandes Filgueiras Meireles
Norbert Mesko
Jacqueline Mills
Maya Miyairi
Ritu Modi
Adriana Modrzejewska
Justyna Modrzejewska
Kate E. Mulgrew
Taryn A. Myers
Hikari Namatame
Mohammad Zakaria Nassani
Amanda Nerini
Félix Neto
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto
Joana Neto
Research on Economics, Management and Information Technologies, Universidade Portucalense
Angela Nogueira Neves
Siu-Kuen Ng
Devi Nithiya
Jiaqing O
Sahar Obeid
Camila Oda-Montecinos
Peter Olamakinde Olapegba
Tosin Tunrayo Olonisakin
Department of Psychology, Ekiti State University
Salma Samir Omar
Brynja Örlygsdóttir
Emrah Özsoy
Tobias Otterbring
Sabine Pahl
Maria Serena Panasiti
Social Neuroscience Laboratory, Santa Lucia Foundation
Yonguk Park
Muhammad Mainuddin Patwary
Tatiana Pethö
Nadezhda Petrova
Jakob Pietschnig
Sadaf Pourmahmoud
Vishnunarayan Girishan Prabhu
Vita Poštuvan
Pavol Prokop
Virginia L. Ramseyer Winter
Magdalena Razmus
Taotao Ru
Mirjana Rupar
Reza N. Sahlan
Mohammad Salah Hassan
Anđela Šalov
Saphal Sapkota
Jacob Owusu Sarfo
Yoko Sawamiya
Katrin Schaefer
Michael Schulte-Mecklenbeck
Veya Seekis
Kerim Selvi
Mehdi Sharifi
Anita Shrivastava
Rumana Ferdousi Siddique
Valdimar Sigurdsson
Vineta Silkane
Ana Šimunić
Govind Singh
Alena Slezáčková
Christine Sundgot-Borgen
Gill ten Hoor
Passagorn Tevichapong
Arun Tipandjan
Jennifer Todd
Constantinos Togas
Fernando Tonini
Juan Camilo Tovar-Castro
Lise Katrine Jepsen Trangsrud
Pankaj Tripathi
Otilia Tudorel
Tracy L. Tylka
Anar Uyzbayeva
Zahir Vally
Edmunds Vanags
Luis Diego Vega
Aitor Vicente-Arruebarrena
Jose Vidal-Mollón
Roosevelt Vilar
Hyxia Villegas
Mona Vintilă
Christoph Wallner
Mathew P. White
Simon Whitebridge
Sonja Windhager
Kah Yan Wong
Eric Kenson Yau
Yuko Yamamiya
Victoria Wai Lan Yeung
Marcelo Callegari Zanetti
Magdalena Zawisza
Nadine Zeeni
Martina Zvaríková
Ulrich S. Tran