title: The validity of well-being measures: a multiple-indicator-multiple-rater model.
abstract: In the subjective indicators tradition, well-being is defined as a match between an individual's actual life and his or her ideal life. Common well-being indicators are life-satisfaction judgments, domain satisfaction judgments, and measures of positive and negative affect (hedonic balance). These well-being indicators are routinely used to study well-being, but a formal measurement model of well-being is lacking. This article introduces a measurement model of well-being and examines the validity of self-ratings and informant ratings of well-being. Participants were 335 families (1 student with 2 parents, N = 1,005). The main findings were that (a) self-ratings and informant ratings are equally valid, (b) global life-satisfaction judgments and averaged domain satisfaction judgments are about equally valid, and (c) about 1/3 of the variance in a single indicator is valid. The main implication is that researchers should demonstrate convergent validity across multiple indicators by multiple raters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schimmack
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gere
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015588:Observer Variation; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult