Cross-cultural measurement invariance in the Satisfaction with Life Scale in Chilean and Spanish university students

Introduction. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is a widely used measure of an individuals’ cognitive assessment of subjective well-being. The SWLS has been validated in several contexts and populations, but its cross-cultural measurement invariance in emerging adult samples remains barely explored. Aim. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the measurement invariance of the SWLS in university students from Chile and Spain and according to gender. Method. A non-probabilistic sample of 165 university students from Chile (66.7% women, M age = 21.9, SD = 2.35), and 109 students from Spain (48.6% women; M age = 22.9, SD = 2.4) completed the SWLS. Results. Using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, results showed that the SWLS exhibited configural, metric and scalar invariance in the comparison between the Chilean and Spanish student samples and also according to gender. Conclusions. This finding allows for significant latent mean comparisons between cross-cultural samples. Moreover, this study supports the SWLS as a valid instrument which provides data that can inform policies in order to improve the subjective well-being of university students of both genders, both in developed and developing Spanish-speaking countries.