Development and Initial Validation of a Multidimensional Flourishing Scale Relating It to Calling, Prosocial Work Motivation and Flow in the Workplace

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a new multidimensional scale to measure “flourishing”, as well as to explore the relations between flourishing, calling, prosocial work motivation and flow. Study 1 describes the development of multidimensional flourishing scale using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in a sample of 305 adults ranging in age from 22 to 79 years (M = 43.92 years; SD = 7.33) from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Multidimensional Flourishing Scale contained three reliable subscales: social wellbeing, psychological wellbeing and emotional wellbeing, which demonstrated moderate 1‐month test–retest reliability and a good internal consistency reliability coefficient. Study 2 reports a good fit to a three‐factor structure using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in a sample of 256 adults ranging from 22 to 59 years of age (M = 38.54 years; SD = 9.01) from Buenos Aires. The CFA results establish empirical support for the Multidimensional Flourishing Scale and confirm the three‐dimensional measurement instrument to assess the facets of Keyes’ (2005) conceptualization of flourishing. Finally, the Multidimensional Flourishing Scale was found to correlate in expected directions with different ways of relating to work: calling and job, work flow and prosocial work motivation.