Assessing Measurement Invariance of Subjective Well-Being Across European Countries

In recent decades, the concept of subjective well-being (SWB) has gained considerable importance and is increasingly preferred as a complement to GDP per capita as a measure of societal prosperity. However, for valid comparisons of this latent construct across different countries, regions, or cultures, establishing its measurement invariance is crucial. This study uses EU-SILC data from 2013 to assess whether measurement invariance holds for SWB with a bifactor-(S-1) model. The model incorporates cognitive, eudaimonic and affective indicators across 32 European countries. The analysis employs multi-group confirmatory factor analysis with WLSMV estimation, which is well-suited for latent factors based on ordinal indicators. Measurement invariance is evaluated through a four-step process: (1) configural invariance, (2) threshold invariance, (3) metric, and (4) scalar invariance. The results indicate that the proposed bifactor-(S-1) SWB model, is fully scalar invariant in 30 European countries, covering nearly all of the 32 countries included in the analysis. This finding supports factually accurate cross-country comparisons of covariances, regression coefficients, and averages of latent constructs.