Measurement Invariance of the Flourishing Scale among a Large Sample of Canadian Adolescents

Isabella Romano, Mark A. Ferro, Karen A. Patte, Ed Diener and Scott T. Leatherdale
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Isabella Romano: School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Mark A. Ferro: School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Karen A. Patte: Department of Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada
Scott T. Leatherdale: School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-15

Abstract: Our aim was to examine measurement invariance of the Flourishing Scale (FS)—a concise measure of psychological wellbeing—across two study samples and by population characteristics among Canadian adolescents. Data were retrieved from 74,501 Canadian secondary school students in Year 7 (2018–2019) of the COMPASS Study and from the original validation of the FS ( n = 689). We assessed measurement invariance using a confirmatory factor analysis in which increasingly stringent equality constraints were specified for model parameters between the following groups: study sample (i.e., adolescents vs. adults), gender, grade, and ethno-racial identity. In all models, full measurement invariance of the FS across all sub-groups was demonstrated. Our findings support the validity of the FS for measuring psychological wellbeing among Canadian adolescents in secondary school. Observed differences in FS score among subgroups therefore represent true differences in wellbeing rather than artifacts of differential interpretation.

Keywords: wellbeing; adolescent wellbeing; adolescent health; measurement; validity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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