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A Multimethod Investigation of the Multidimensionality of Children's Well-Being Reports: Discriminant Validity of Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem

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Abstract

A total of 290 middle school students were administered the Self- Description Questionnaire-II (SDQ-II) and the Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS). Three different approaches were employed to explore the discriminant validity of global self-esteem and global life satisfaction in children. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that children differentiate the well-being constructs. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis provided further support for the incremental validity of the life satrisfaction construct. Furthermore, global life satisfaction and global self-esteem scores demonstrated different correlates. Children's perception of their academic competence were more strongly related to their global self- esteem than their global life satisfaction whereas children's perceptions of the quality of their family relationships was the strongest correlate of their global life satisfaction. The findings were then replicated with a sample of 183 elementary school students (grades 3–5). Taken together, the findings provided strong support for the meaningfulness of the global life satisfaction construct with children as well as the multidimensionality of children's subjective well-being reports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208

    E. Scott Huebner, Rich Gilman & James E. Laughlin

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  1. E. Scott Huebner
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  2. Rich Gilman
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  3. James E. Laughlin
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Huebner, E.S., Gilman, R. & Laughlin, J.E. A Multimethod Investigation of the Multidimensionality of Children's Well-Being Reports: Discriminant Validity of Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem. Social Indicators Research 46, 1–22 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006821510832

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