Life satisfaction around the world: Measurement invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups

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.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
PLoS ONE
Published
2025-01-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313107
Citations
18
Primary Topic
Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
41.46
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Life satisfaction around the world: Measurement invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups

Trawin Chaleeraktrakoon, Farinaz Farbod, Alireza Ghorbani, Alena Slezáčková et al.
18 citations
PLoS ONE
Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
41.46
article

Life satisfaction around the world: Measurement invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups

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

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.

PLoS ONEVol. 20(1)
Wesleyan University (US), Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (BR), University of North Carolina at Charlotte (US), Sakarya University (TR), Eötvös Loránd University (HU), Thammasat University (TH), University of Essex (GB), Islamic Azad University, Tehran (IR), University of Messina (IT), Handong Global University (KR), Griffith University (AU), DePaul University (US), University of Bern (CH), University of Primorska (SI), Utah State University (US), Mahasarakham University (TH), Reykjavík University (IS), Khulna University (BD), Oslo University Hospital (NO), University of Vienna (AT), Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute (IN), Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (LV), Ekiti State University (NG), Prince of Songkla University (TH), Universidade de Ribeirão Preto (BR), University of Cape Coast (GH), Koç University (TR), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (RO), University of Padua (IT), Universiti Sains Malaysia (MY), Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Minas Gerais (BR), University of Hertfordshire (GB), Universidad del Norte (CO), Virginia Wesleyan University (US), University of Maragheh (IR), Applied Science Private University (JO), University of Tsukuba (JP), National Chung Cheng University (TW), Deakin University (AU), Tarbiat Modares University (IR), University of Rijeka (HR), Tribhuvan University (NP), University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (MY), Chulalongkorn University (TH), Aberystwyth University (GB), University of Sargodha (PK), Universitat de València (ES), Iran University of Medical Sciences (IR), Universiti of Malaysia Sabah (MY), Universidad de Los Andes (CO), University of Iceland (IS), The University of Melbourne (AU), Medical University of Silesia (PL), University of Monastir (TN), University of Allahabad (IN), University of Groningen (NL), University of Novi Sad (RS), University of Prešov (SK), University of the Sunshine Coast (AU), Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (PL), Panteion University (GR), Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK), The University of Western Australia (AU), Universidade de São Paulo (BR), BI Norwegian Business School (NO), University of Ibadan (NG), Universidade do Porto (PT), King's College London (GB), Chapman University (US), Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KZ), Soochow University (TW), South China Normal University (CN), Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway (IE), Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (LB), University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" (IT), University of Malta (MT), University of Agder (NO), United Arab Emirates University (AE), University of Miskolc (HU), Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ), University of Dhaka (BD), Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Adolfo Ibáñez University (CL), Al-Quds University (PS), Charles University (CZ), Masaryk University (CZ), Aix-Marseille Université (FR), University of Wrocław (PL), University School of Physical Education in Kraków (PL), Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University (IN), University of Cambridge (GB), Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Bahrain (BH), Beijing Normal University (CN), Bartin University (TR), University College Cork (IE), University of Michigan (US), Medical University Plovdiv (BG), University of South-Eastern Norway (NO), Harvard University Press (US), Sion College (GB), Afe Babalola University (NG), West University of Timişoara (RO), Cégep de Jonquière (CA), Université du Québec en Outaouais (CA), Klaipėda University (LT), Maastricht University (NL), Islamic University of Indonesia (ID), University of Gdańsk (PL), University of Belgrade (RS), Yalova University (TR), Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca (ES), Heriot-Watt University Malaysia (MY), MSH Medical School Hamburg – University of Applied Sciences and Medical University (DE), Ahmed Bin Mohammed Military College (QA), Perdana University (MY), Ministry of Public Health (LB), Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (FR), Michigan United (US), College of Applied Sciences, Nizwa (OM), Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Max Planck Institute for Human Development (DE), Faculty of Public Health (GB), Institute of Psychology (PL), Neapolis University Pafos (CY), Universidad Simón Bolívar (CO), The Polytechnic Ibadan (NG), Temple University, Japan (JP), University of Palermo (AR), BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil Bochum (DE), Astana Medical University (KZ), Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo (IL), Middlesex University Dubai (AE), Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Psychology (CZ), University of O'Higgins (CL), Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences (AT), Dar Al Uloom University (SA), Fondazione Santa Lucia (IT), Latin University of Costa Rica (CR), Universidade Portucalense (PT), Institute of Zoology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Universidad Regional Amazónica IKIAM (EC), University of Florence (IT), Sultan Qaboos University (OM), Chiang Mai University (TH), Massey University (NZ), Eskişehir Osmangazi University (TR), Anglia Ruskin University (GB), University of Almería (ES), The Ohio State University (US), Payame Noor University (IR), Universidade São Judas Tadeu (BR), University of Zadar (HR), University of Tartu (EE), Lebanese American University (LB), New York University (US), De La Salle University (PH), University of Bielsko-Biała (PL), Liverpool John Moores University (GB), University at Buffalo, State University of New York (US), Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (CA), Menoufia University (EG), Munzur University (TR), Saint Mary's University (CA), Alzahra University (IR), Australian Psychological Society (AU), Universidad San Francisco de Quito (EC), Kyungnam University (KR), Comenius University Bratislava (SK), University of Missouri (US), University of Pecs (HU), Clemson University (US), Alexandria University (EG), Sapienza University of Rome (IT), University of Sousse (TN), University of Oklahoma (US), Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) (BR), University of Hong Kong (HK), University of Chittagong (BD), Ruhr University Bochum (DE), University of Latvia (LV), Lebanese International University (LB)
Gender equality
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
41.46
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.