Abstract
Despite increasing research interest in the subjective wellbeing (SWB) of Indigenous Australians, SWB measures used in these studies have not been validated for use in this population. Until the measurement equivalence of scales used in this population are demonstrated, inferences regarding potential differences in SWB across Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups cannot be validly inferred. To rectify this, the present study examines the psychometric equivalence of the Personal Wellbeing Index—School Children (PWI-SC) for use among samples of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian adolescents using multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis. The Indigenous sample comprised 1,378 adolescents enrolled in the Australian Federal Government’s Youth Connections Program. A sample of 6,401 non-Indigenous adolescents also enrolled in the Youth Connections Program represented a second comparative group. Finally, the third comparative group comprised a convenience sample of 983 Victorian high-school students. The results demonstrated strict factorial invariance between all three adolescent groups, suggesting that the PWI-SC measures the same underlying construct in each sample. These findings support quantitative comparisons between Indigenous and non-Indigenous SWB data as valid. The implications of this research are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). The health and welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publishing Services.
Australian Bureau of Statistics & Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2008). The health and welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples 2008. Canberra, Australia: AIHW.
Blore, J., Stokes, M. A., Mellor, D., Firth, L., & Cummins. R. A. (2011). Comparing multiple discrepancies theory to affective models of subjective wellbeing. Social Indicators Research, 100, 1–16.
Byrne, B. M. (2010). Structural equation modeling in AMOS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Casas, F. et al. (2011). Testing the Personal Wellbeing Index on 12–16 year old adolescent in 3 different countries with 2 new items. Social Indicators Research. doi: 10.1007/s11205-011-9781-1.
Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 14, 464–504.
Cummins, R. A. (1995). On the trail of the gold standard for subjective wellbeing. Social Indicators Research, 35, 179–200.
Cummins, R. A. (1998). The second approximation to an international standard for life satisfaction. Social Indicators Research, 43, 307–334.
Cummins, R. A. (2000). Personal income and subjective wellbeing: A review. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 133–158.
Cummins, R. A. (2010). Subjective wellbeing, homeostatically protected mood and depression: A synthesis. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11, 1–17.
Cummins, R. A. (2013). Homeostasis. In A. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life research. New York: Springer (in press).
Cummins, R. A., & Lau, A. L. D. (2005). Personal Wellbeing Index—school children (PWI-SC) (3rd ed.) Melbourne: Deakin University. Retrieved July 12, 2011, from http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/instruments/wellbeing_index.htm.
Cummins, R. A., Lau, A. L. D., & Stokes, M. (2004). HRQOL and subjective well-being: Noncomplementary forms of outcome measurement. Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, 4, 413–420.
Cummins, R. A., Woerner, J., Tomyn, A. J., Gibson, A., Knapp, T’Meika. (2007). Australian Unity Wellbeing Index Survey 17.0 Part A: The report Wellbeing of Australians: work, wealth and happiness: part A. Deakin University, Geelong, Vic.
Cummins, R. A., Woerner, J., Weinberg, M., Gibson-Prosser, Adele., Collard, J., & Horfiniak, K. (2010) Australian Unity Wellbeing Index Survey 24.0 Part A: The report “The Wellbeing of Australians – Trust, Life Better/Worse and Climate Change”. Melbourne: Australian Centre on Quality of Life, School of Psychology, Deakin University.
Curran, P. J., West, G. W., & Finch, J. F. (1996). The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. Psychological Methods, 1, 16–29.
Davern, M., Cummins, R. A., & Stokes, M. (2007). Subjective wellbeing as an affective-cognitive construct. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 429–449.
Diener, E., Sandvik, E., Seidlitz, L., & Diener, M. (1993). The relationship between income and subjective wellbeing: Relative or absolute? Social Indicators Research, 28, 195–223.
Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (Eds.). (2000). Culture and subjective wellbeing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dingwall, K. M., & Cairney, S. (2010). Psychological and cognitive assessment of Indigenous Australians. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 44, 20–30.
DiStefano, C., & Hess, B. (2005). Using confirmatory factor analysis for construct validation: An empirical review. Journal of Psycho educational Assessment, 23, 225–241.
Gregorich, S. E. (2006). Do self-report instruments allow meaningful comparisons across diverse population groups? Testing measurement invariance using the confirmatory factor analysis framework. Medical Care, 44, S78–S90.
Hanestad, B. R., & Albrektsen, G. (1992). The stability of quality of life experience in people with Type 1 diabetes over a period of a year. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 17, 777–784.
Headey, B., & Wearing, A. (1989). Personality, life events, and subjective well-being: Toward a dynamic equilibrium model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 731–739.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55.
International Wellbeing Group. (2006). Personal Wellbeing Index. Retrieved June 27, 2011, from http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/instruments/wellbeing_index.htm.
Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York: Guilford Press.
Lau, A. L. D., Cummins, R. A., & McPherson, W. (2005). An investigation into the cross-cultural equivalence of the Personal Wellbeing Index. Social Indicators Research, 72, 403–430.
Pallant, J. (2001). SPSS survival manual. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
SCRGSP. (2009). Overcoming indigenous disadvantage: Key indicators 2009. Canberra: Productivity Commission.
SPSS for Windows: Release 18.0. (2009). Chicago: SPSS Inc.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Thomas, A., Cairney, S., Gunthorpe, W., Paradies, Y., & Sayers, S. (2010). Strong Souls: development and validation of a culturally appropriate tool for assessment of social and emotional well-being in Indigenous youth. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 44, 40–48.
Tomyn, A. J., & Cummins, R. A. (2011a). The subjective wellbeing of high-school students: Validating the Personal Wellbeing Index-school children. Social Indicators Research, 101, 405–418.
Tomyn, A. J., & Cummins, R. A. (2011b). Subjective wellbeing and homeostatically protected mood: Theory validation with adolescents. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1–18. doi:10.1007/s10902-010-9235-5.
Tomyn, A. J., Fuller Tyszkiewicz, M. & Cummins, R. A. (2011a). The Personal Wellbeing Index: Psychometric equivalence for adults and school children. Social Indicators Research (online first). doi: 10.1007/s11205-011-9964-9.
Tomyn, A. J., Norrish, J. M., & Cummins, R. A. (2011b). The subjective wellbeing of indigenous Australian adolescents: Validating the Personal Wellbeing Index—school children. Social Indicators Research (online first). doi: 10.1007/s11205-011-9970-y.
Westerman, T. (2002). WASC-Y training manual. Perth, Western Australia: Indigenous Psychological Services.
Zubrick, S. R., et al. (2004). The Western Australian Aboriginal child health survey: The health of Aboriginal children and young people. Perth, Australia: Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to knowledge the Australian Federal Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) for providing data collected as part of their Youth Connections Program.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendices
Appendix 1
See Table 4.
Appendix 2
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tomyn, A.J., Fuller Tyszkiewicz, M.D. & Norrish, J.M. The Psychometric Equivalence of the Personal Wellbeing Index School-Children for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australian Adolescents. J Happiness Stud 15, 43–56 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9415-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9415-1