Measurement Invariance of Personal Well-Being Index (PWI-8) Across 26 Countries

Abstract

This report examines the measurement invariance of the Personal Well-being Index with 8 items (PWI-8). University students (N = 5731) from 26 countries completed the measure either through paper and pencil or electronic mode. We examined uni-dimensional structure of PWI and performed a Multi-group CFA to assess the measurement invariance across the 26 countries, using conventional approach and the alignment procedure. The findings provide evidence of configural and partial metric invariance, as well as partial scalar invariance across samples. The findings suggest that PWI-8 can be used to examine correlates of life satisfaction across all included countries, however it is impossible to compare raw scores across countries.

The work of Jarosław P. Piotrowski was supported by research Grant rewarded by University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poznan Faculty. The work of Jan Cieciuch was supported by grants 2014/14/M/HS6/00919 from the National Science Centre, Poland.