Soc Indic Res (2010) 99:413429 DOI 10.

1007/s11205-010-9589-4

Psychometric Properties of the Satisfaction with Life Scale among Turkish University Students, Correctional Ofcers, and Elderly Adults
Mithat Durak Emre Senol-Durak Tulin Gencoz

Accepted: 14 February 2010 / Published online: 24 February 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Abstract This study aims to extensively examine the psychometric properties of adapted version of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) in different Turkish samples. In order to test the psychometric properties of the SWLS three separate and independent samples are utilized in this study, namely university students (n = 547), correctional ofcers (n = 166), and elderly adults (n = 123). Concerning the reliability of the scale, internal consistency and item-total correlation coefcients are found to be satisfactory for all three samples. As for the validity studies, concurrent validity of the scale is supported in all three samples by revealing the association of SWLS with conceptually related measures, which included depression, self-esteem, positive affect and negative affect, work stress, and monthly income measures. Discriminant validity is examined only in the sample of university students, and SWLS revealed a non-signicant correlation with a conceptually unrelated construct (i.e., willingness to self-censor). Consistent with the original scale, a single-factor solution model reveals an adequate t in all three different samples. Furthermore, conrmatory factor analysis with multi-group comparisons performed demonstrates that SWLS has the same theoretical structure for three different groups on the basis of a single-factor solution model. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed. Keywords Satisfaction with Life Scale SWLS University students Elderly Correctional ofcers Conrmatory factor analysis Reliability Concurrent validity Discriminant validity Multi-group comparison
M. Durak (&) E. Senol-Durak Arts and Science Faculty, Department of Psychology, Abant Izzet Baysal University (AIBU), Bolu, Turkey e-mail: mithatdurak@yahoo.com E. Senol-Durak e-mail: emresenoldurak@yahoo.com; durak_e@ibu.edu.tr T. Gencoz Arts and Science Faculty, Department of Psychology, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey e-mail: tgencoz@metu.edu.tr

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The determinants of subjective well-being have been largely investigated in recent years. Duckworth et al. (2005) dened subjective well-being as the presence of positive emotion, the absence of negative emotion, and a cognitive judgment of satisfaction and fulllment (p. 636). According to Pavot and Diener (2004), subjective well-being is comprised of two constructs: an emotional or affective component (i.e., positive and negative affect) and a conceptual or cognitive component (i.e., satisfaction with life, marriage, work, and leisure). Diener (1984) further argued that the relationship between positive and negative aspects (i.e., understanding the relationship between life satisfaction and negative affect) of subjective well-being is essential to understand the construct. Due to this increased interest in subjective well-being, scholars have developed several instruments to measure the construct (Pavot et al. 1998). Some of these measures assess the global aspects of individuals lives (Diener 1984); while some others measure specic components of subjective well-being. For example, Watson et al. (1988) developed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) to measure the affective components of subjective well-being. In addition, the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI; Argyle et al. 1989, 1995) and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ; Hills and Argyle 2002) were developed to assess both life satisfaction and the affective components of subjective wellbeing. Moreover, Semantic Differential Scale (SDS; Campbell et al. 1976) and Life Satisfaction Inventory: Form-A (LSI-A; Neugarten et al. 1961) were developed to assess the subjective well-being. On the other hand, there were also studies that used only one item to assess it (e.g., Kjeldstadl et al. 2006). However, other researchers (e.g., Pavot et al. 1991) have emphasized several psychometrical limitations of one-item measures. For example, Diener (1984) asserted that one-item measure did not assess different aspects of subjective well-being. Similarly, Pavot and Diener (2004) argued that such measures were illsuited due to lack of covering specic dimensions of well-being, such as affective and cognitive components (p. 115). Pavot et al. (1998) recommended that researchers use multiple-item measures in order to assess subjective well-being accurately. One of the multiple-item measures used to assess subjective well-being is the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al. 1985). The SWLS has been widely utilized to measure global life satisfaction through ve statements related to quality of life (Updegraff and Suh 2007), including statements tapping on cognitive components of satisfaction (Anaby et al. in press). Diener et al. (1985) reported the internal consistency of the SWLS as .87, and the testretest correlation as .82. Other researchers (e.g., Paolini et al. 2006) have reported similar results. All researchers agree that the SWLS has only one factor. Similarly, a one-factor structure was conrmed in the French (Blais et al. 1989), Brazilian-Portuguese (Gouveia et al. 2009), Russian (Tucker et al. 2006), Malay (Swami and Chamorro-Premuzic 2008) and Hebrew (Anaby et al. in press) versions following generally the method of Conrmatory Factor Analysis. Internal consistency of the SWLS ranged from .77 (Gouveia et al. 2009) to .86 (Anaby et al. in press). The convergent validity scores indicated that the SWLS was related with depression, negative affect, positive affect, self-esteem, anxiety and psychological distress (Pavot and Diener 2008). According to the criterion-related validity, the SWLS was positively related with positive affect and negatively related with negative affect (Anaby et al. in press; Gouveia et al. 2009). Pavot et al. (1991) stated that the SWLS is superior to other measures of subjective well-being because of its ability to gather accurate information with only ve statements. They supported their argument by examining the correlations between subjective reports (i.e., self-rating) and external reports (i.e., ratings of peers or family members about the

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target person) of life satisfaction on the SWLS. Pavot et al. (1991) found a moderate correlation between the self report and peer reports of well-being (r = .55, p \ .001), as well as between the self report and family members reports of well-being (r = .57, p \ .001). The SWLS guided the development of several other measures relating to life satisfaction. For example, the Temporal Satisfaction with the Life Scale (TSWLS; Pavot et al. 1998) was based on the SWLS. For the application of TSWLS, SWLS was administered to the undergraduate students on three different time intervals. Participants were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the same ve statements with different wordings: past, present, and future. The time interval between the rst and the second administration was 4 weeks, whereas it was 5 weeks between the second and the third administration. The internal consistency of the total scale was reported to be .92, .92, and .93 for the rst, second, and third administrations, respectively. The testretest reliability of the total scale was reported to be .83 for the rst to the second administration, .82 for the rst to the third administration, and .88 for the second to the third administration. The TSWLS was found to be signicantly correlated with positive affect (.57, .51, .53, for the rst, second, and third administrations, respectively) and negative affect (-.46, -.46, -.47 for the rst, second, and third administrations, respectively). Advantages of the SWLS also include its widespread utilization. The SWLS has been used with participants of various ages. In addition, it allows researchers to compare respondents of different ages (Pavot et al. 1991). Researchers have utilized the SWLS with undergraduate students (Gouveia et al. 2009), adults (Tucker et al. 2006), and elderly individuals (e.g., Elavsky et al. 2005; Minardi and Blanchard 2003). Furthermore, researchers have studied the inuence of subjective well-being (as measured by SWLS) on individuals experiencing stressful life events, such as mothers of school-aged children with cerebral palsy (Skok et al. 2006), caregivers of individuals with dementia (McConaghy and Caltabiano 2005), physicians, teachers (Gouveia et al. 2009), and nurses (Heyns et al. 2003). The SWLS relationship with age (Pavot et al. 1991) and stressful life events (Skok et al. 2006) have been examined in the literature. Moreover, the scales utility to compare respondents in different ages is mentioned as well (Pavot et al. 1991). Therefore, in the present study, three different groups of individuals are selected to examine the psychometric properties of the SWLS. Likewise in Gouveia et al. (2009) study, undergraduate students are selected as participants due to exposing stressful life events throughout their education (Senol-Durak et al. in press). Correctional ofcers are selected as another sample group since their work conditions are stressful and risky (i.e., ambiguous instructions, managers negative attitudes, and threats) (Durak et al. 2003; Senol-Durak et al. 2006). Likewise in Elavsky et al. (2005) and Minardi and Blanchard (2003) study, elderly individuals are selected since health problems and many restrictions on social life during later adulthood are extensively related with life satisfaction of elderly (James 2008). The purpose of the present study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the SWLS in Turkish culture using three different samples; namely samples of university students, elderly adults, and correctional ofcers. Thus, this study includes three phases, where the factor structure of the scale is examined along with its internal consistency and range of item-total correlation coefcients. As for the concurrent validity, the correlation of SWLS with other measures assessing conceptually related constructs (e.g., depression, self-esteem, positive affect and negative affect, work stress, and monthly income measures) are examined. Discriminant validity is studied only in the university student sample, and the SWLS is expected to have a non-signicant correlation with a conceptually unrelated construct (i.e., willingness to self-censor). In order to examine whether the

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SWLS has the same theoretical structure for each sample (students, correctional ofcers and elderly people), a model including multi-group comparisons was tested as an evidence of the validity of the scale.

1 Study 1 As stated above, the reliability and validity coefcients of the SWLS were examined in a sample of university students. 1.1 Method 1.1.1 Participants The sample included 201 males (36.7%) and 346 females (63.3%) whose ages ranged between 17 and 28 years (M = 20.70, SD = 1.77). The majority (N = 407; 74.4%) of the participants were residing in a dormitory, 21.9% (N = 120) of them were residing with friends, and 3.7% (N = 20) of them were residing with their families. The mean of monthly family income was 1386.29 Turkish Liras (924.19 USD) (SD = 804.34 TL or 536.23 USD), ranging from 300 to 6,000 TL (200 USD to 4,000 USD). 1.1.2 Measures In addition to the Demographic Information Form, six measures were employed in the rst study. Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al. 1985) was employed to assess global life satisfaction using ve statements with regard to quality of life. Participants were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the statements on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). According to the SWLS, higher scores indicate greater life satisfaction. The total scores of participants on the SWLS ranged from 5 to 35. In terms of its reliability and validity, Diener et al. (1985) reported that the internal consistency of the instrument was .87, and the testretest correlation was .82. Also, they found a one-factor structure that explained 66% of the variance. For the present study, the scale was translated into Turkish, and the back-translation revealed semantically similar items with the original scale. The details of the translation phase have been given in the procedure sub-section. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was developed by Beck et al. (1961) to assess depressive symptoms using 21 items rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale. According to the BDI, higher scores indicate higher levels of depression. The BDI was adapted into Turkish by Hisli (1988). In the present study, the internal consistency of the BDI was .87. Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) was developed by Watson et al. (1988) to measure positive and negative affect with 20 items rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = very slightly or not at all to 5 = extremely). In PANAS, ten items comprise positive affect (PA) whereas ten other items make up negative affect (NA) subscales. The internal consistency estimates for the PANAS measuring mood across seven different time periods (same day to a year) range from .84 to .87 for the NA scale. Factor analysis supports the z (2000) examined the psychometric properties structures of both PA and NA scales. Genc o of the Turkish version of the scale. In the present study, the internal consistency was .85 for the PA and .82 for the NA.

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Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg 1965) was used to assess self-esteem of the participants with 10 items rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale. The scale was lu (1986) who rated the items on a 5-point Likert-type adapted into Turkish by C uhadarog scale. In the present study, its internal consistency was .81. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) was developed by Zimet et al. (1988) in order to assess a persons perception of the adequacy of social support from friends, family and signicant others. It is a 12-item self-report instrument scored on a 7-point Likert type scale. The factor structure of the original scale (i.e., social support from friends, family, and signicant others) was obtained from the Turkish adaptation of the scale (Eker and Arkar 1995). In the present study, the internal consistencies were found satisfactory for the perceived social support from friends (.87), family (.80), and signicant others (.95). The Willingness to Self-Censor Scale (WSCS), consisting of 8 items, was developed by Hayes et al. (2005a, b) in order to assess ones willingness to withhold ones true opinion from those who disagree with that opinion. Its items were found to load on one single factor, accounting for 44.99% of the total variance (Cos kun et al. 2010). In the present study, the internal consistency was found satisfactory for the total scales (.91). This scale was utilized as a measure expected to have a non-signicant correlation with SWLS, since it is conceptually unrelated with satisfaction with life. 1.1.3 Procedure Prior to data collection, items of the SWLS were translated into Turkish by two independent native English-speaking translators uent in Turkish, and then reviewed by two native Turkish-speaking psychologists uent in English to check for accuracy. Any discrepancies were carefully discussed by two translators and two psychologists, and then resolved by joint agreement. Back translation of this nal form, conducted by an independent bilingual psychologist, revealed semantically similar items with the original scale. The scales were distributed to the students in the classroom setting. They were informed about the aim of the present study and their consents were obtained. All subjects participated voluntarily. 1.2 Results 1.2.1 Data Cleaning Prior to the analyses, all data was examined to ensure the accuracy of data entry, manage missing values and improve the t between their distributions and assumptions of multivariate analyses (Tabachnick and Fidell 1996). Two cases with extremely high z scores were found to be univariate outlier and deleted. The remaining 547 cases were included in the analysis. 1.2.2 Descriptive Statistics and Reliability Descriptive statistics of the SWLS items are indicated in Table 1. Reliability was assessed using internal consistency indexes. The SWLS had an internal consistency coefcient of .81, and the corrected item total correlations ranged from .55 to .63 (see Table 1).

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418 Table 1 The descriptive statistics of SWLS items Mean Std. dev. Skewness Kurtosis Minimum

M. Durak et al.

Maximum

ITC

University students (n = 547) Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 4.76 4.14 4.60 4.70 3.68 3.33 2.83 3.31 3.53 2.69 4.77 4.82 5.18 4.91 4.14 1.49 1.61 1.63 1.55 1.90 1.87 1.80 1.73 1.88 1.89 1.80 1.72 1.58 1.70 2.11 -0.74 -0.26 -0.50 -0.63 0.09 0.29 0.87 0.42 0.28 0.99 -0.59 -0.62 -0.93 -0.75 -0.23 -0.28 -0.97 -0.83 -0.49 -1.26 -1.43 -0.46 -1.07 -1.27 -0.31 -0.72 -0.63 -0.23 -0.52 -1.33 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 0.62 0.59 0.62 0.63 0.55 0.62 0.59 0.58 0.69 0.55 0.68 0.78 0.70 0.78 0.72

Correctional ofcers (n = 166)

Elderly adults (n = 123)

Sd. Dev. standard deviation, ITC item total correlation

1.2.3 Factor Validity by Conrmatory Factor Analysis It is well documented that the SWLS basically reects a single-factor structure (Diener 1984; Diener et al. 1985). Therefore, a conrmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test a single-factor structure of the SWLS. To assess the model t, several indexes may be considered. Although no index is perfectly reliable, it is recommended that several t indices should be used in conjunction to make a decision. Generally, it is recommended that Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), relative noncentrality index (RNI), normed noncentrality index (NNCP) and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) (Sharma et al. 2005) or Chi-Square (v2), root mean squared residual (RMR; or standardized root mean square residual, SRMR), comparative t index (CFI), and RMSEA (Kline 2005) should be used to assess the model t. In contrast to several researchers, Sharma et al. (2005) suggested not to use goodness of t index (GFI). Moreover, the ratio of v2 to degrees of freedom (df) should be less than 3 (Kline 2005). However, v2 is not recommended solely because of being affected by sample size and complexity of the model for factor analysis (Raykov 1998). Several indexes mentioned above are handled to evaluate the model t. Such indexes (i.e., IFI, TLI, CFI, and RFI) range from .00 to 1.00, with larger values indicating better model t. In general, values of .90 or greater are interpreted as evidence of good model t (Bentler and Bonett 1980). A smaller RMSEA, by contrast, indicates better model t. In addition to RMSEA, it is suggested to use SRMR (Bentler 1995) which is more sensitive index to simple misspecied models than the rest of other t indices (Hu and Bentler

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Table 2 The conrmatory factor analysis results for single-factor solution of the SWLS for the three different samples and multiple-group analysis for all three groups Model t statisticsa v2 v2/df IFI Comparison of modelsb TLI CFI SRMR RMSEA Change (D) in v2 Change (D) p value in df

The conrmatory factor analysis for one-factor solution University students Correctional ofcers Elderly adults 10.129 2.026 .994 .987 .994 .020 5.862 1.172 .997 .993 .997 .026 5.293 1.059 .999 .998 .999 .020 0.43 0.32 0.22 .046 .044 Dv2 = 5.910 Ddf = 4 p = .206

Multiple-group analysis for university student Unconstrained 82.435 2.748 .963 .963 .963 .034 Measurement weights 88.345 2.598 .961 .966 .961 .033

v2 chi-square, df degrees of freedom, IFI incremental t index, TLI TuckerLewis index, CFI comparative t index, RMSEA root mean square error of approximation
a b

Bold values demonstrate that the model t the data

Bold values indicate that a signicant change (D) in v2 and df, noted by p C .05. It suggests that the model does a signicantly good job of describing the data than the previous model

1998, p. 438). SRMR should be between 0 and .05 for a good t and between .05 and .10 for an acceptable t (Schermelleh-Engel and Moosbrugger 2003). A single-factor solution model was tested by AMOS 7.0 (Arbuckle 2006) and it presented adequate t, v2 (5, N = 547) = 10.129, p = .072. Apart from the suggested v2/df ratio (v2/df = 2.026), goodness of t index showed that the t could be regarded as adequate; IFI = .994, TLI = .987, CFI = .994, SRMR = .020, RMSEA = .043. The standardized estimates of all items were signicant and ranged from .62 to .71. The squared multiple correlations were ranged from .39 to .50. Table 2 demonstrates detailed t indices for a single-factor solution model of the SWLS. 1.2.4 Concurrent and Discriminant Validity In order to evaluate concurrent validity, the scores of participants on the SWLS were compared with conceptually related constructs, namely self-esteem, positive affect and negative affect, perceived social support from different sources, depression scores, and monthly income. The correlations among the variables were within the range of expected values (see Table 3 for the detailed correlations). SWLS was positively correlated with self-esteem (r = .40, p = .000), PA (r = .31, p = .000), perceived social support from family (r = .29, p = .000), perceived social support from friends (r = .26, p = .000), perceived social support from signicant others (r = .21, p = .000), and monthly income (r = .13, p = .011). As expected, the scores of participants on the SWLS were negatively correlated with NA (r = -.29, p = .000), and depression (r = -.40, p = .000). In order to evaluate discriminant validity, the scores of participants on the SWLS were compared with an unrelated construct, namely willingness to self-censor. As expected, the correlation between life satisfaction and willingness to self-censor was very small (r = -.08, p = .054).

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Table 3 The descriptive statistics of the variables and the correlations among the variables Sd. dev. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

123
6.18 7.05 7.78 7.08 8.57 4.82 5.21 9.17 6.16 813.71 Sd. dev. 2 3 4 5 6 7 .41*** -.33*** -.38*** -.24*** .20*** .22*** .58*** -.21*** -.29*** -.16*** -.17*** -.38*** .17*** .18*** .29*** .46*** -.38*** -.46*** .20*** .26*** .26*** -.24*** -.22*** .24*** .18*** -.12** -.14*** -.13** .40*** .31*** -.29*** -.40*** .29*** .26*** .21*** -.08 .13* .19*** .04 -.01 -.07 .06 .05 .14** -.13** 6.97 7.89 7.72 26.28 14.02 10.00 446.24 Mean Sd. dev. 2 3 4 5 .33*** -.23** -.15 .26*** -.29*** -.34*** -.39*** -.52*** .54*** .51*** -.30*** -.33*** .39*** .38*** .53*** .23** .05 -.17* -.21** -.21** -.14 23.82 36.94 7.44 6.84 .20* .20* .01 -.39*** -.53*** .29** .07

Poss. range

Mean

University students (n = 547)

1. Life satisfaction

535

21.91

2. Self esteem

1050

38.31

3. Positive affect

1050

32.19

4. Negative affect

1050

22.71

5. Depression

063

12.28

6. PPS from family

428

23.32

7. PPS from friends

428

22.22

8. PPS from signicant others

428

17.66

9. Willingness to self-censor

840

20.13

10. Monthly income

3006,000

1392.69

Poss. range

Mean

Correctional ofcers (n = 166)

1. Life satisfaction

535

15.68

2. Positive affect

1050

32.14

3. Negative affect

1050

20.74

4. Work stress

0140

94.85

5. Burnout

088

39.66

6. Depression

063

14.07

7. Monthly income

5385,000

1055.58

Poss. range

Elderly adults (n = 123)

1. Life satisfaction

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2. Self esteem

1050

Table 3 continued Mean 3.49 11.13 1278.85 1557.79 5.70 -.31*** 0.86 -.37*** .29** Sd. dev. 2 3 4 5

Poss. range

3. Perceived current health status

15

4. Late-life depression

030

5. Monthly income

10015,000

Satisfaction with Life Scale

PPS perceived social support, Sd. Dev. standard deviation, Poss. Range possible range

* p \ .05, ** p \ .01, *** p \ .001

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2 Study 2 Employment in a correctional setting is stressful and risky because of working on night shifts, work overload, insufcient division of labor, ambiguous instructions, managers negative attitudes, feelings of worthlessness, nancial problems, and threats (Senol-Durak et al. 2006). Thus, in this second study, psychometric properties of the SWLS were studied among a sample of correctional ofcers. 2.1 Method 2.1.1 Participants Correctional ofcers were selected from three different types of prisons due to the danger and stress associated with their work environment. The sample included 139 males and 27 females. Age of the participants ranged between 20 and 57 years (M = 37.19, SD = 7.97). Thirty-two participants (19%) worked in maximum security prisons, eighty-eight participants (53%) worked in medium security prisons, and forty-six participants (28%) worked in minimum security prisons. The mean of monthly family income was 1055.58 Turkish Liras (703.72 USD) (SD = 446.24 TL or 297.49 USD), ranging from 538 to 5,000 TL (358.67 USD to 3333.33 USD). 2.1.2 Measures Along with the SWLS, BDI (in this second study, the internal consistency of the BDI was .89), and PANAS (internal consistency was .86 for both PA and NA in this second study), the Work Stress Scale for Correctional Ofcers (WSSCO) and Maslach Burnout Questionnaire (MBQ) were administered in the second study. Work Stress Scale for Correctional Ofcers (WSSCO) was developed by Senol-Durak and her colleagues (2006) to assess the work stress of correctional ofcers. It includes 35 items rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Higher scores of WSSCO indicate higher work stress. The internal consistency of the scale was reported to be .87, and testretest reliability was reported to be .77. In the present study, the internal consistency of the WSSCO was .95. Maslach Burnout Questionnaire (MBQ) was developed by Maslach and Jackson (1986) to assess emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment with 22 items. Ergin (1992) adapted the questionnaire into Turkish. In the present study, the internal consistency of the instrument was .89. 2.1.3 Procedure The measures were distributed to the correctional ofcers after obtaining approval from the ethical committee of the Ministry of Justice. In compliance with the prison rules (e.g., scheduling prison visits and obeying the rules of entering the prison, such as showing identity cards), the researchers informed the correctional ofcers about the purpose of the study and carried out the study of locations where the correctional ofcers were on duty (corridors, library, meeting hall, kitchen, hobby center, and crisis center). These locations were selected by the managers. Due to the restrictions of administering the questionnaires in compliance with the prison rules, the correctional ofcers were given a booklet

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comprising of the questionnaires used. After they were informed about the aim of the present study and their consent was obtained. They were asked to complete the questionnaires. All subjects participated in the present study voluntarily. 2.2 Results 2.2.1 Data Cleaning Two cases were found to have missing values higher than 5%, therefore these cases were excluded (as suggested by Tabachnick and Fidell 1996). Using a Mahalonobis distance with p \ .001, two cases were identied as multivariate outliers and deleted. The remaining 166 cases, as introduced in the participants subsection were included in the analysis. 2.2.2 Descriptive Statistics and Reliability Descriptive statistics of the SWLS items are indicated in Table 1. Results indicated that the SWLS had high internal consistency (.82) in the sample of correctional ofcers. The corrected item total correlation ranged from .55 to .69 (see Table 1). 2.2.3 Factor Validity by Conrmatory Factor Analysis A single-factor solution model was tested by AMOS 7.0 (Arbuckle 2006) and it presented adequate t, v2 (5, N = 166) = 5.862, p = .320. Apart from the suggested v2/df ratio (v2/ df = 1.172), goodness of t index showed that the t could be regarded as adequate; IFI = .997, TLI = .993, CFI = .997, SRMR = .026, RMSEA = .032. The standardized estimates of all items were signicant and ranged from .63 to .79. The squared multiple correlations were ranged from .40 to .62. Table 2 demonstrates detailed t indices for a single-factor solution model of the SWLS. 2.2.4 Concurrent Validity The correlations among the variables were within the range of expected values (see Table 3 for the detailed correlations). The SWLS was positively correlated with PA (r = .26, p = .001) and monthly income (r = .23, p = .002). However, as expected it had negative correlation with NA (r = -.29, p = .000), work stress (r = -.34, p = .000), burnout (r = -.39, p = .000), and depression (r = -.30, p = .000).

3 Study 3 Health problems and many restrictions on social life during later adulthood are extensively related with life satisfaction of elderly such as building maintenance and neighborhood (James 2008). Thus, psychometric properties of the SWLS were examined among elderly individuals as well.

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3.1 Method 3.1.1 Participants The sample included 55 males (44.7%) and 68 females (55.3%) whose ages ranged between 60 and 85 (M = 68.18, SD = 5.10). The majority (N = 87; 70.7%) of the participants were married with the remaining participants reporting being widowed (N = 28; 22.8%) or divorced (N = 7; 6.5%). Participants identied their perception of current health status as very poor (n = 2, 1.6%), poor (n = 10, 8.1%), average (n = 51, 41.5%), well (n = 46, 37.4%), and very well (n = 14, 11.4%) on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The monthly income of participants ranged from 100 to 15,000 Turkish Liras (66.67 USD to 10,000 USD) (M = 1278.85 TL or 852.57 USD, SD = 1557.79 TL or 1038.53 USD). 3.1.2 Measures In addition to the SWLS and RSES (in this third study, Cronbachs alpha was .72.) that were used in Study 1, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was employed in the third study. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS; Yesavage et al. 1983) was developed to assess depression levels among elderly adults by using 30 items. Participants were asked to answer yes or no in reference to how they felt on the day of administration. The range of possible total scores on GDS is between 0 and 30. The instrument was adapted into Turkish by Ertan et al. (1997). In the present study, the internal consistency was .84. 3.1.3 Procedure The measures were distributed to elderly Turkish adults by using snowball sampling due to the difculties associated with recruiting elderly individuals for psychological studies. After they were informed about the purpose of the study, all participants indicated their informed consent by signing a consent form. Participation in the study was voluntary, and thirty-two elderly individuals chose not to participate in the study. Completion of the questionnaires took approximately 0.51.5 h. When needed, the participants were permitted to take a 510 min break during the interview. 3.2 Results 3.2.1 Data Cleaning Three cases were found to have missing values higher than 5%, therefore these cases were deleted according to criterion suggested by Tabachnick and Fidell (1996). Using a Mahalonobis distance with p \ .001, two cases were identied as multivariate outliers and deleted. The remaining 123 cases, as introduces in the participants subsection, were included in the analysis. 3.2.2 Descriptive Statistics and Reliability Descriptive statistics of the SWLS items are indicated in Table 1. Reliability was assessed using internal consistency indexes. The SWLS had an internal consistency coefcient of .89, and the corrected item total correlation ranged from .68 to .78 (see Table 1).

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3.2.3 Factor Validity by Conrmatory Factor Analysis A single-factor solution model was tested by AMOS 7.0 (Arbuckle 2006) and it presented adequate t, v2 (5, N = 123) = 5.293, p = .320. Apart from the suggested v2/df ratio (v2/df = 1.059), goodness of t index showed that the t could be regarded as adequate; IFI = .999, TLI = .998, CFI = .999, SRMR = .020, RMSEA = .022. The standardized estimates of all items were signicant and ranged from .72 to .85. The squared multiple correlations were ranged from .52 to .73. Table 2 demonstrates detailed t indices for a single-factor solution model of the SWLS. 3.2.4 Concurrent Validity The correlations among the variables were within the range of expected values (see Table 3 for the detailed correlations). The scores of the participants on the SWLS were positively correlated with self-esteem (r = .20, p = .023), perceived current health status (r = .20, p = .027), and monthly income (r = .29, p = .002). As expected, the scores of participants on the SWLS were negatively correlated with late-life depression (r = -.39, p = .000). 3.2.5 Conrmatory Factor Analysis with Multiple-Group Analysis Multiple-group analysis with CFA empowers us to appraise if the factor structure is consistent across different samples (Bryne 2004). In fact, it is likely even when the sample sizes are substantially distinct (Byrne 2004). The primary focus of a multiple-group analysis is to nd out the extent to which groups differ (Arbuckle 2006). The principle queries for multiple-group analysis are; (1) Whether the groups all have the same path diagram with the same parameter values. (2) Whether the groups have the same path diagram but with different parameter values for different groups. (3) Whether each group need a different path diagram (p. 163). Multiple-group analysis was conducted using AMOS 7.0 (Arbuckle 2006) to determine whether the SWLS has the same theoretical structure for each sample (students, correctional ofcers and elderly people). A model with measurement weights constrained to be equal across groups was compared to a model where weights were not constrained. The unconstrained three-group model for students, correctional ofcers and elderly people t the data well, v2 (30, N = 836) = 82.435. Apart from the suggested v2/df ratio (v2/df = 2.748), the goodness of t indexes showed that the t was adequate (IFI = .963, TLI = .963, CFI = .963, SRMR = .019, RMSEA = .046). All factor loadings were signicant. Following, no signicant differences between the constrained and unconstrained models were identied, indicating that the model is valid for three different samples. In the model with one factor, there are no covariances. Therefore, only the model in which the measurement weights were set equal for the three different groups was tested and it did not result in a signicant; Dv2 (df = 4) = 5.910, p = .206 (DIFI = -.002, DTLI = .003, DCFI = -.002, DSRMR = -.001, DRMSEA = -.002). Table 2 demonstrates detailed multi-group comparison t indices. 3.3 Discussion In the present study, three different groups of individuals are selected to examine the psychometric properties of the SWLS. These groups were selected considering the

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relationship between SWLS, age (Pavot et al. 1991) and stressful life events (Skok et al. 2006). Therefore, undergraduate students exposing stressful life events, correctional ofcers working in stressful and risky conditions (Durak et al. 2003; Senol-Durak et al. 2006) and elderly individuals having health problems and many restrictions on social life (James 2008) were selected as participants to examine the psychometric properties of the SWLS in Turkish culture. Results suggested that the psychometric properties of the SWLS were satisfactory in all samples. In terms of reliability, the SWLS was found to have high internal consistency, and the item-total correlations were quite adequate. The results of the validity studies further conrmed that the SWLS was suitable to use with different samples of Turkish participants, specically among university students, elderly adults, and correctional ofcers. CFA conrms that a single-factor solution model reveals an adequate t in all three different samples on the basis of model t indices (RMSEA, SRMR, IFI, TLI, and CFI). This result supports the previous ndings obtained from factor analysis (Diener et al. 1985; Paolini et al. 2006; Pavot et al. 1991) and conrmatory factor analysis (Blais et al. 1989; Tucker et al. 2006) of the SWLS, conducted in different cultures. Moreover, CFA with multi-group comparisons was performed to determine whether the SWLS had the same theoretical structure for all three groups (university students, correctional ofcers and elderly) on the basis of a single-factor solution model. The results indicated no signicant differences between the constrained and unconstrained models. Results suggested that the psychometric properties of the SWLS were satisfactory in all samples. In other words, the nal model is valid for all three groups as long as the stability of all the constraints) is maintained. The scale measures the same in all three groups. In addition to factorial structure, the SWLS has been found to have good concurrent and discriminant validity. Consistent with the ndings of other researchers (e.g., Pavot et al. 1998), the ndings of the present study conrmed that the concept of life satisfaction was related to positive affect, negative affect, and depression in a sample of university students and correctional ofcers. Similarly, in Diener et al. (1985) study, SWLS was related to late life depression and self esteem in a sample of elderly adults, and as expected, it was also positively correlated with perceived current health status. In addition to the positive correlations with perceived social support from family, from friends, and from signicant others in university students, SWLS was signicantly and negatively correlated to job burnout, work stress and depression in correctional ofcers. For discriminant validity, Campbell and Fiske (1959) suggested that a measure should not be signicantly correlated with other measures aimed to assess theoretically different (i.e., unrelated) constructs. Consistent with this criterion, it was found that the SWLS was not signicantly correlated with the WSCS that was utilized to measure a conceptually dissimilar variable. Therefore, an evidence for discriminant validity was provided by the lack of a signicant relationship between life satisfaction and willingness to self-censor. The results of the present study should be considered in the light of several strengths and methodological limitations. Given that numerous researchers demonstrated that life satisfaction was related to aging (e.g., Tucker et al. 2006) and work stress (e.g., Heyns et al. 2003), the selection of university students, elderly adults and correctional ofcers as the samples of the present study was reasonable. Gathering data from different samples is necessary in order to improve the generalizability of the results. Research with other workers working in highly stressful conditions (e.g., nurses) warrants similar studies. Finally, due to the difculties of retesting, not being able to examine the testretest reliability was another limitation of the present study.

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In conclusion, the results revealed that the psychometric properties of the SWLS were satisfactory in three different Turkish samples. These ndings support the adaptable nature of the SWLS to different cultures. Further research using demographically diverse populations is encouraged to strengthen and support the psychometric properties of the SWLS in different cultures.
Acknowledgments This project is partially supported by a grant from The Scientic and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) (Project no: SOBAG 105K155).

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