A Bifactor Model of Subjective Well-Being at Personal, Community, and Country Levels: A Case With Three Latin-American Countries
Improving citizens' subjective well-being (SWB) has become an increasingly visible policy goal across industrialized countries. Although an increasing number of studies have investigated SWB at the individual level, little is known about subjective evaluation at social levels, such as the commu...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641641/full |
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| author | Javier Torres-Vallejos Javier Torres-Vallejos Joel Juarros-Basterretxea Juan Carlos Oyanedel Juan Carlos Oyanedel Masatoshi Sato |
| author_facet | Javier Torres-Vallejos Javier Torres-Vallejos Joel Juarros-Basterretxea Juan Carlos Oyanedel Juan Carlos Oyanedel Masatoshi Sato |
| author_sort | Javier Torres-Vallejos |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Improving citizens' subjective well-being (SWB) has become an increasingly visible policy goal across industrialized countries. Although an increasing number of studies have investigated SWB at the individual level, little is known about subjective evaluation at social levels, such as the community and national levels. While the relationships between these levels have been analyzed in previous research, these assessments, which are part of the same unique construct of SWB, are under-investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the dimensionality and reliability of a single measure of SWB, which contained individual, community, and national levels across three Latin-American countries (Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela), using a bifactor model analysis. Findings showed that the bifactor model exhibited a good fit to the data for the three countries. However, invariance testing between countries was not fully supported because of each item's specific contribution to both specific and general constructs. The analyses of each country showed that the SWB construct was in a gray area between unidimensionality and multidimensionality; some factors contributed more to the general factor and others to the specific level, depending on the country. These findings call for integrating more distant levels (community and country levels) into the understanding of SWB at the individual level, as they contribute not only to an overall construct, but they make unique contributions to SWB, which must be considered in public policy making. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T02:00:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e8529b49277f4ba786ba46ae2c336ffc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T02:00:00Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-e8529b49277f4ba786ba46ae2c336ffc2022-12-21T19:57:22ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-06-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.641641641641A Bifactor Model of Subjective Well-Being at Personal, Community, and Country Levels: A Case With Three Latin-American CountriesJavier Torres-Vallejos0Javier Torres-Vallejos1Joel Juarros-Basterretxea2Juan Carlos Oyanedel3Juan Carlos Oyanedel4Masatoshi Sato5Facultad de Educación y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, ChileCentro de Investigación para la Educación Inclusiva, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, ChileCentro Universitario de la Defensa de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, SpainFacultad de Educación y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, ChileCentro de Investigación para la Educación Inclusiva, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, ChileFacultad de Educación y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, ChileImproving citizens' subjective well-being (SWB) has become an increasingly visible policy goal across industrialized countries. Although an increasing number of studies have investigated SWB at the individual level, little is known about subjective evaluation at social levels, such as the community and national levels. While the relationships between these levels have been analyzed in previous research, these assessments, which are part of the same unique construct of SWB, are under-investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the dimensionality and reliability of a single measure of SWB, which contained individual, community, and national levels across three Latin-American countries (Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela), using a bifactor model analysis. Findings showed that the bifactor model exhibited a good fit to the data for the three countries. However, invariance testing between countries was not fully supported because of each item's specific contribution to both specific and general constructs. The analyses of each country showed that the SWB construct was in a gray area between unidimensionality and multidimensionality; some factors contributed more to the general factor and others to the specific level, depending on the country. These findings call for integrating more distant levels (community and country levels) into the understanding of SWB at the individual level, as they contribute not only to an overall construct, but they make unique contributions to SWB, which must be considered in public policy making.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641641/fullsubjective well-beingcountrycommunitybifactor modelmeasurement |
| spellingShingle | Javier Torres-Vallejos Javier Torres-Vallejos Joel Juarros-Basterretxea Juan Carlos Oyanedel Juan Carlos Oyanedel Masatoshi Sato A Bifactor Model of Subjective Well-Being at Personal, Community, and Country Levels: A Case With Three Latin-American Countries Frontiers in Psychology subjective well-being country community bifactor model measurement |
| title | A Bifactor Model of Subjective Well-Being at Personal, Community, and Country Levels: A Case With Three Latin-American Countries |
| title_full | A Bifactor Model of Subjective Well-Being at Personal, Community, and Country Levels: A Case With Three Latin-American Countries |
| title_fullStr | A Bifactor Model of Subjective Well-Being at Personal, Community, and Country Levels: A Case With Three Latin-American Countries |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Bifactor Model of Subjective Well-Being at Personal, Community, and Country Levels: A Case With Three Latin-American Countries |
| title_short | A Bifactor Model of Subjective Well-Being at Personal, Community, and Country Levels: A Case With Three Latin-American Countries |
| title_sort | bifactor model of subjective well being at personal community and country levels a case with three latin american countries |
| topic | subjective well-being country community bifactor model measurement |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641641/full |
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