Brief adolescents’ subjective well-being in school scale: Measurement invariance and latent mean differences across school levels among Chinese students

Abstract

Establishing measurement invariance of the Brief Adolescents’ Subjective Well-Being in School Scale (BASWBSS) across school levels is a prerequisite for using it to compare mean score differences as well as possible differential determinants, correlates, and consequences for students at different school levels. The current study thus aimed to test the configural, metric, and scalar invariance of BASWBSS scores across the elementary, middle, and high school levels as well as to compare the latent mean differences across these levels. A total of 799 Chinese students of ages 9–19 years (329 elementary school students, 303 middle school students and 167 high school students) participated in this study. The results of multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses showed that partial scalar invariance was supported across school levels, with three non-invariant items (i.e., Items 4, 6, and 7 from the School Satisfaction subscale). Comparisons of the latent mean differences across school levels revealed that elementary students reported higher school satisfaction than middle and high school students, with high school students reporting the lowest satisfaction. Additionally, high school students reported significantly less positive affect in school than elementary and middle school students, whereas there was no difference between elementary and middle school students and between middle and high school students. Furthermore, the results of gender latent mean comparisons showed that there were no significant gender differences for school satisfaction or affect in school. The findings provided further evidence for the usefulness of the BASWBSS with Chinese students.