Unhappy While Depressed: Examining the Dimensionality, Reliability and Validity of the Subjective Happiness Scale in a Spanish Sample of Patients with Depressive Disorders

Albert Feliu-Soler, Javier de Diego-Adeliño, Juan V. Luciano, Ioseba Iraurgi, Carlo Alemany, Dolors Puigdemont, Víctor Pérez, Maria J. Portella and Joan Trujols
Additional contact information
Albert Feliu-Soler: Department of Clinical & Health Psychology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Javier de Diego-Adeliño: Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), 08025 Barcelona, Spain
Juan V. Luciano: Department of Clinical & Health Psychology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Ioseba Iraurgi: DeustoPsych—Unidad de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación en Psicología y Salud, Universidad de Deusto, 48007 Bilbao, Spain
Carlo Alemany: Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), 08025 Barcelona, Spain
Dolors Puigdemont: Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), 08025 Barcelona, Spain
Víctor Pérez: Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), 28029 Madrid, Spain
Maria J. Portella: Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), 08025 Barcelona, Spain
Joan Trujols: Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), 08025 Barcelona, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 20, 1-13

Abstract: Despite the considerable amount of research evidence on the significant role of subjective happiness on mental health, there is no psychometric study of the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) in psychiatric samples. This study was aimed at exploring the psychometric properties of the SHS in a Spanish sample of patients with depressive disorders. Participants were 174 patients with a depressive disorder (70% diagnosed as major depressive disorder) who completed the SHS, the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report (QIDS-SR 16 ), and the EQ-5D Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-5D VAS). Depressive symptoms were also assessed by means of the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS 17 ) and the Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) Scale. Dimensionality, internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and responsiveness to change of the SHS were examined. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the original one-factor structure of the scale. The SHS exhibited good-to-excellent results for internal consistency (? = 0.83) and for convergent [EQ-5D VAS (r = 0.71)] and divergent [QIDS-SR 16 (r = ?0.72), HDRS 17 (r = ?0.60) and CGI-S (r = ?0.61)] construct validity. The ability of the SHS to differentiate between depression severity levels as well as its responsiveness to clinical change were both highly satisfactory ( p < 0.001 in both cases). The SHS retained the soundness of psychometric properties showed in non-clinical samples in a sample of patients with depressive disorders, which supports its use as a reliable and valid outcome measure in the treatment of such disorders.

Keywords: happiness; depressive disorders; assessment; self-report; Subjective Happiness Scale; psychometrics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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