Further Validation of the Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire: Comparing First-Order and Second-Order Factor Effects on Actual School Outcomes
Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment
Published online on November 15, 2016
Abstract
This report presents further validation evidence for the Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ). Analyses conducted with a sample of urban middle-school students (Grades 5-8, N = 335) targeted two limitations from previous validation studies: the lack of convergent validity evidence linking responses to the SSWQ with actual school outcomes and the lack of comparative validity evidence demonstrating the relative contributions of the SSWQ’s first-order and second-order factors for predicting criterion variables. Results from the present study confirmed the SSWQ’s higher-order measurement model and then demonstrated that both first-order and second-order factors had substantive effects on several school-reported outcomes, although first-order factors were more robust predictors overall. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are briefly discussed.