Running head: MEASURING AFFECT ACROSS NATIONS Measuring the Affective Components of Subjective Well-Being across Nations: Is the Assumption of Measurement Invariance Tenable?

For several decades researchers have investigated the subjective well-being (SWB) of nations with the aim of comparing the quality of life of countries (Diener & Suh, 2000). Such comparisons presuppose that the underlying conceptual structure of SWB is invariant across the nations. If this is not the case then one is not comparing the same phenomenon and cross-national comparisons may be confounded by measurement artifact. The present paper investigated the assumption of measurement invariance with regard to Diener’s Affect Balance Scale across samples from China, and the USA (i.e., a collectivistic and an individualistic culture, respectively). This scale is frequently used to assess the affective components, positive and negative affect, of SWB. The total sample consisted of 974 college students (China: 539 and USA: 435). Because of the ongoing discussion regarding the bipolarity versus the independence of positive and negative affect, we tested for measurement invariance with a oneand two-factor model. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses resulted in the conclusion that we are not measuring the same construct in the two countries. We therefore next conducted exploratory factor analyses to investigate the nature of the construct in the two countries separately. We found that a two-factor solution was adequate for both countries but that for the US sample the positive factor emerged as the first factor in the solution whereas for the Chinese sample it was the second. Specifically, in the US sample, positive affect accounts for about twice as much variation as does negative affect; whereas in the Chinese sample negative affect accounts for about 1.5 times as much variation as does positive affect. Also, in the US sample, the two factors were negatively correlated, whereas they were positively correlated in the Chinese sample. In addition, the negative correlation between positive and negative affect in the US sample was more pronounced for females than males, and the positive correlation between positive and negative affect in the Chinese sample was more pronounced for females than males. Measuring affect across nations 3 Measuring the Affective Components of Subjective Well-Being across Nations: Is the Assumption of Measurement Invariance Tenable? The measurement of quality of life, specifically subjective well-being, has become increasingly popular in recent decades. One of the reasons for this growing popularity is that subjective well-being is considered an indicator by which to assess “successful living”, and thus is deemed an apt construct to assess whether people are “living in accord with human nature” (Diener & Suh, 2000, p. 5). In other words, subjective well-being “can represent the degree to which people in each society are accomplishing the values they hold dear” (Diener & Suh, p. 4). Researchers have increasingly started to use subjective well-being to evaluate and compare the quality of life of countries, in addition to other indicators such as GNP and low infant mortality. Proponents of this approach argue that subjective well-being indicators could, in fact, be used to inform national policies (Kahneman, Diener, & Schwartz, 1998; Diener, 2000). However, such comparisons presuppose that the same latent variable is measured in the countries of interest, or, in other words, that the underlying conceptual structure of subjective well-being is invariant across countries. If this is not the case, one is not comparing the same phenomenon and crossnational comparisons are confounded by measurement artefact (Vittersø, Røysamb, & Diener, 2002). Confounding variables could include, for example, test adaptation (e.g., artefacts of translation such as using words with multiple meanings in the target language), the familiarity with the task of completing questionnaires, or the item response format. Measurement invariance across countries can be tested using structural equation modeling with a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA). Measurement invariance is assumed when the relationships between the latent variables and the observed variables are the same across the relevant groups. If this assumption of measurement invariance is not tenable, the Measuring affect across nations 4 observed scores are not directly comparable (Drasgow & Kanfer, 1985). This clearly demonstrates the importance of addressing measurement invariance when comparing nations with regard to subjective well-being, especially because inferences made from these comparisons can be of (potentially) far reaching consequences—e.g., when informing policy. In the following, a definition of subjective well-being is provided and a longstanding issue regarding the measurement of positive and negative affect is briefly addressed. Constituents of subjective well-being According to Diener, Sapyta, & Suh (1998, p. 34) subjective well-being is a “person’s evaluation of his or her life”. Subjective well-being is generally considered to consist of three components: a cognitive one (satisfaction with life) as well as two affective ones (positive and negative affect). For the present study, we only focus on the latter two. There has been an ongoing discussion with regard to the bipolarity versus the independence/discriminant validity of positive and negative affect (e.g., Diener & Emmons, 1984; Feldman Barrett & Russell, 1998; Schimmack, Böckenholt, & Reisenzein, 2002). This is especially important with regard to the measurement aspect—whether it is possible to combine the affective components into one overall affect score (and possibly add this to a satisfaction with life score resulting in one total composite score of subjective well-being), or whether they need to be reported separately, which derives from the assumption that they are not part of one latent variable. One scale that is frequently used in well-being research is an 8-item scale that is referred to as “Diener’s Affect Balance Scale” in the “World database of happiness” by Veenhoven (2004). According to this database, the scale produces a person’s affect balance score, which is obtained by subtracting the subtotal for the negative affect items from the subtotal of the positive affect items; a procedure that implies that affect balance is considered unidimensional. Measuring affect across nations 5 Regardless of the theoretical rationale for such an assumption, from a psychometric point of view, it is necessary to investigate whether the assumption of unidimensionality holds for any given sample, therefore allows the combination of the subscales, or whether there are, in fact, two dimensions of affect that need to be reported separately. The purpose of the present study is to investigate to what degree Diener’s Affect Balance Scale exhibits measurement invariance across cultures. Specifically, this examines whether the scale is measuring the same phenomenon in the countries under investigation. In order to address the question regarding the dimensionality of affect, the tests are conducted with a one and two factor model. Data obtained in the USA and China were used. These nations represent an individualistic and a collectivistic culture, respectively (cf. Suh, Diener, Oishi, & Triandis, 1998). Highly individualistic cultures, such as the USA, perceive the self as an autonomous and independent entity, a phenomenon that has also been termed the “inner-focused individualist self” (Suh et al., p. 482). In contrast, in collectivistic cultures such as China, the self is viewed as interdependent with the social context, as the goal is to be in and maintain harmony with others; a phenomenon that, in turn, has been referred to as the “other-focused collectivist self” (Suh et al., p. 483).