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Preliminary Validation of the Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS)

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Abstract

Two studies investigated the psychometricproperties of the Brief MultidimensionalStudents' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS: Huebner, 1994). In Study 1, 221 middle schoolstudents completed the Brief MultidimensionalStudents' Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS),Multidimensional Students' Life SatisfactionScale, Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS:Huebner, 1991a), Positive and Negative AffectSchedule-Children's Version (Laurent et al.,1999), Children's Social Desirability Scale(Crandall et al., 1965), and a one-item globallife satisfaction rating (GLLS). Students alsorated the importance of the BMSLSS five lifesatisfaction domains (Family, Friends, School,Self, Living Environment). The results revealedacceptable internal consistency reliability,criterion-related validity, and constructvalidity for the BMSLSS Total score forresearch purposes. Furthermore, evidence ofconvergent and discriminant validity for theBMSLSS domain scores was also obtained throughmultitrait-multimethod analyses. Finally, theresults failed to provide strong support forthe usefulness of importance scores inpredicting overall life satisfaction;unweighted BMSLSS scores were highly related toglobal life satisfaction (GLLS) scores. InStudy 2, 46 high school students completed theBMSLSS and MSLSS to test the generalizabilityof the convergent and discriminant validityfindings with older adolescents. The findingsrevealed stronger evidence of validity withthis age group. Overall, the findings offered preliminary support for the reliability andvalidity of the BMSLSS, suggesting that it canserve as a useful alternative to the longerMSLSS in studies with adolescents in whichbrevity is an important consideration.

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Seligson, J.L., Huebner, E.S. & Valois, R.F. Preliminary Validation of the Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS). Social Indicators Research 61, 121–145 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021326822957

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