The adaptation of multidimensional students' life satisfaction scale into Turkish: Validity and reliability studies

Abstract

Problem Statement: Life satisfaction has been defined as a cognitive evaluation of the quality of a person's life as a whole. Although numerous studies have been done with adults, little research has been investigated the life satisfaction in children and adolescents. Children and adolescents life satisfaction scales have been limited to one-dimensional measures of global life satisfaction, which yield only to a single overall score. The Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS) was designed to provide a general life satisfaction score along with scores on five domains (family, friends, school, living environment, self). The adaptation of the MSLSS into Turkish will offer contribution to investigate underlying structure of life satisfaction in Turkish early adolescent.

Purpose of Study: The aim of this study was to adapt the MSLSS into Turkish and to examine validity and reliability properties.

Methods: Participants consist of 688 students from grades 6 through 8 of six junior high school in Malatya, Turkey. The mean age was 13.01. The data were collected by using the translated version of the MSLSS, developed by Huebner. For concurrent validity of the MSLSS-Turkish version, the Depression Scale for Children (DSC) was used. The factor structure of the MSLSS-Turkish version was tested by factor analyses with varimax. Furthermore, interfactor correlations, Cronbach Alpha coefficients and, test-retest coefficients were calculated.

Results: The results of factor analyses supported the five satisfaction domains of the MSLSS-original version. The MSLSS-Turkish version accounting for 44.50% of the total variance contained 36 items loading .34 or higher. Acceptable internal consistency and test-retest values for the total scale and subscale scores were obtained. In addition, the relationships between the MSLSS and the DSC demonstrated concurrent validity of the MSLSS-Turkish version. The findings of this study indicated that the MSLSS was a valid and reliable instrument to measure life satisfaction in Turkish junior high school students.

Recommendations: The validity and reliability studies of the MSLSS may be carried out in Turkish high school students. Future researches on the relationships between the MSLSS-Turkish version and various criterion measures (e.g., self esteem, parental attitudes) will be able to provide additional evidence for concurrent validity.