Abstract
BackgroundThe Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is a widely used measure of subjective well-being. Recent evidence indicates the fifth item of the scale reduces the reliability of the scale and is inappropriate for use in traumatic injury populations. The purpose of this study was to develop a linking procedure between the five-item version of the SWLS and a modified four-item version, which removes the problematic item, for use in Spinal Cord (SCI), Traumatic Brain (TBI), and Burn Injury populations.MethodsProration (i.e. adding the mean of the four items to their total) was identified as a potential linking solution that could be easily implemented in clinical or research settings. The validity of the proration approach was evaluated by examining mean differences, cross group classification by SWLS category, score correlations, the intraclass correlation coefficient, and visual inspection of Bland-Altman plots in a large sample of SCI, TBI, and Burn Injury survivors who were participants in the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) Model Systems’ National Databases.ResultsA total of 17,897 (SCI n = 8566, TBI n = 7941, and Burn n = 1390) participants were included in this study. SWLS scores ranged from 5 to 35, and the average score difference between directly derived and prorated scores was 0.39 points. A large majority of the sample (93%) had score differences of < 4 points (i.e. approximately 0.5 SD). The correlation between the prorated and directly derived scores was very high (r = 0.97) and the ICC value indicated excellent reliability (ICC = 0.97).ConclusionsThis study provides a valid scoring approach for researchers or clinicians who don’t want to lose continuity with previously collected data but prefer to switch to the modified four-item version of the SWLS. Clear guidance is provided for traumatic injury researchers or clinicians on how to implement the proration scoring approach.
Highlights
Satisfaction with life is a global construct of subjective well-being that has been widely studied across populations and fields, from economics to health and environment
Clear guidance is provided for traumatic injury researchers or clinicians on how to implement the proration scoring approach
A recent psychometric evaluation of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) by Amtmann et al [3] in a large sample of traumatic injury (spinal cord (SCI), traumatic brain (TBI), and burn) populations found that the fifth item functions poorly and reduces the reliability of the scale
Summary
Satisfaction with life is a global construct of subjective well-being that has been widely studied across populations and fields, from economics to health and environment. Though a significant number of studies have provided validity evidence for the SWLS, a review of the scale by Pavot and Diener [2] acknowledged that the fifth item of the scale, “If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing,” has consistently lower factor loadings. They hypothesized that this is because the fifth item is an indirect indicator of satisfaction with life while the first four items are direct indicators (see Table 1 for all items). The purpose of this study was to develop a linking procedure between the five-item version of the SWLS and a modified four-item version, which removes the problematic item, for use in Spinal Cord (SCI), Traumatic Brain (TBI), and Burn Injury populations
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