ABSTRACT
Objective
Life satisfaction is a cognitive judgment of some specific areas in life and depends on a comparison between the life circumstances of the individual and a standard established by it. The objective of this study was to construct a scale of satisfaction with life by Item Response Theory (IRT).
Methods
For the creation of the scale we used the questionnaire “Life Style and Habits Leisure Industry Workers” and Item Response Theory based on the graduated response model proposed by Samejima. The study enrolled 47,477 Brazilian workers in the industry.
Results
The scale had seven items the questions of the “health indicators and preventive behaviors” with issues related to health status, quality of sleep, stress level, feelings of sadness or depression and perception of life at home, at work and play.
Conclusion
There are few studies that have their focus directed to life satisfaction in Brazil, and those who somehow discussed, only included a specific question about happiness or life satisfaction, especially in studies on subjective well-being. The results show that IRT was efficient to create the scale, especially those individuals with intermediate measuring life satisfaction.
Life satisfaction; workers industry; Item Response Theory
