Abstract
Background The Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) is a self-report tool to measure happiness. A brief review of previous studies on OHI showed the lack of evaluation of OHI fairness/equivalence in measuring happiness among identified groups. Methods To examine the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the OHI, responses of 500 university students were analyzed using item response theory and ordinal logistic regression (OLR). Relevant measures of effect size were utilized to interpret the results. Differential test functioning was also evaluated to determine whether there is an overall bias at the test level. Results OLR analysis detected four items across gender and two items across marital status to function differentially. An assessment of effect sizes implied negligible differences for practical considerations. Conclusions This study was a significant step towards providing theoretical and practical information regarding the assessment of happiness by presenting adequate evidence regarding the psychometric properties of OHI.
Highlights
Happiness has been the ultimate goal of humans and superior to all other goals throughout history
There is no study that had looked at the validity of Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) in terms of measurement invariance and potential bias with respect to previously identified groups such as gender and marital status
The measurement invariance of OHI revealed six out of 29 items of the OHI were flagged as exhibiting uniform Differential Item Functioning (DIF)
Summary
Happiness has been the ultimate goal of humans and superior to all other goals throughout history. Scale [3], and Panas Scale [4] These questionnaires reflect different definitions and perceptions of happiness. The OHI was devised as a broad measure of personal happiness in the Department of Experimental Psychology of the University of Oxford in the late 1980s. A brief review of previous studies on OHI showed the lack of evaluation of OHI fairness/equivalence in measuring happiness among identified groups. To examine the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the OHI, responses of 500 university students were analyzed using item response theory and ordinal logistic regression (OLR).
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