title: Empirical testing of the Satisfaction With Life Scale: a South African pilot study.
abstract: To explore applicability of the Satisfaction With Life Scale in a different racial and cultural context (South Africa), a questionnaire containing items on basic demographic characteristics, the 5-item Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the 10-item Rosenberg Self-esteem scale, was administered to a small convenient sample of 34 Black (13 men and 21 women) and 20 White (9 men and 11 women) South Africans aged between 17 and 70 years. As expected, Black respondents were less likely to have completed high school than White respondents and were more likely to be unemployed. Factor analysis of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (coefficient alpha of .92) yielded a single factor, accounting for 76% of the variance. Mean differences of the two groups were not significant when education and employment status were controlled. As anticipated, Life Satisfaction scores were correlated .86 with rated Self-esteem. Given the very small convenient sample, results are consistent with robust findings in western countries and encourage replication on a larger, representative sample.
authors.affiliation: Health and Development Research Group, Medical Research Council, and School of Health Systems and Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa. mwestawa@mrc.ac.za
authors.forename: Margaret S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Westaway
authors.forename: Chantelle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maritz
authors.forename: Nurse J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Golele
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013019:South Africa; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires