Abstract
PurposeLife satisfaction refers to a cognitive and global evaluation of the quality of one’s life as a whole. The arguably most often used measure of life satisfaction is the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Persons with mental disorders generally report lower SWLS scores than healthy controls, yet there is a lack of studies that have compared different diagnostic groups, tested measurement invariance of the SWLS across these groups, and examined effects of treatment on life satisfaction.MethodsData of 9649 inpatients of seven diagnostic categories were analyzed: depressive episode, recurrent depressive disorder, phobic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, trauma-related disorders, somatoform disorders, and eating disorders.ResultsThe one-factor structure of the SWLS was replicated and full measurement invariance was demonstrated across groups. Patients with trauma-related disorders reported the lowest life satisfaction. Life satisfaction significantly increased during treatment across all groups and these changes were moderately related to changes in depressive symptoms.ConclusionsResults support the excellent psychometric properties of the SWLS. They also demonstrate that although persons with mental disorder generally report lower life satisfaction than persons without mental disorders, life satisfaction also varies considerably between different diagnostic groups. Finally, results show that life satisfaction increases during inpatient treatment, although at discharge most patients have rarely reached levels of life satisfaction reported in non-clinical samples.
Highlights
Life satisfaction can be defined as a cognitive and global evaluation of the quality of one’s life as a whole [1]
The current study examined life satisfaction as measured with the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) in different diagnostic groups of persons with mental disorders who received inpatient treatment
The current study reports the largest sample of persons with mental disorders in which life satisfaction was assessed with the SWLS to date
Summary
Life satisfaction can be defined as a cognitive and global evaluation of the quality of one’s life as a whole [1]. The SWLS has been found to have a one-factor structure, which has been replicated numerous times [1, 4, 5]. Another important aspect of the psychometric properties of a test, is measurement invariance, which indicates that the same construct is being measured across different groups or points in time. A large amount of studies have examined measurement invariance of the SWLS across sex, age, different countries, or points in time (for overviews see [1, 5, 6]), results have been mixed. Establishing measurement invariance of the SWLS across these groups is important as it is a prerequisite for comparing scores between these groups
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