Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale: translation into Brazilian Portuguese and cross-cultural adaptation

Life satisfaction measures are distinct from measures of psychopathology and from objective quality of life (QoL) measures.¹,² Proponents of the subjective QoL indicators perspective focus on measures that incorporate individuals' subjective perceptions and evaluations of key indicators of QoL, such as life satisfaction.³

Life satisfaction studies focus on how and why people experience their lives in positive ways.⁴ Both unidimensional and multidimensional ratings of life satisfaction have been examined in the literature. However, multidimensional measures provide the most distinctive information about a person's life satisfaction.³

In 1994, Huebner developed the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale⁴ (MSLSS), a 40-item self-report questionnaire designed to assess life satisfaction in adolescent students. Information regarding test development, usage, and psychometric properties is available elsewhere.² The MSLSS has demonstrated favorable psychometric properties, including acceptable internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and factorial validity.³,⁴

The objective of this study was to report the process of cross-cultural adaptation of the MSLSS for Brazilian adolescents. The translation and adaptation of the scale to Brazilian Portuguese followed the methodology proposed by Guillemin et al.⁵

The scale was subjected to a translation process involving a two-person English-Portuguese translation team, a two-person back-translation team privy to the original version, and a discussion group (composed of two psychiatrists, a psychologist familiar with QoL questionnaires and their applications, and a native English teacher) responsible for reaching full consensus regarding lexical and cultural equivalence. A cognitive debriefing analysis was performed with 15 adolescents, which represent the focus group in terms of age and school year, and no items were considered to be problematic by these subjects.

The original author's approval of the resulting merged version (back-translation) shows that the methodology employed was adequate. We submitted the Brazilian version to a pilot study whereby 49 students (aged 12 to 18 years) were selected at random and recruited from two secondary schools (one public and one private) in the same district of the city of Recife, state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Students of both genders (63% female) and different educational levels were included. After consent had been provided by the schools and parents, the MSLSS was administered in classrooms.

To determine internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated (Table 1), and were found to be consistent for the overall score in both schools. All domains had an alpha coefficient of > 0.71, which is considered adequate for research purposes.

Table 1
Cronbach's alpha coefficients in Canadian, Korean, Chinese, and Croatian samples as compared with our study

Study	Family	School	Friends	Self	Environment	Global
Gilman & Huebner, 20086 (China sample)	0.87	0.78	0.74	0.69	0.67	0.89
Huebner & Gilman, 20027	0.79-0.85	0.83-0.85	0.81-0.85	0.72-0.84	0.79-0.83	0.90-0.92
Park et al., 20048	0.76-0.87	0.81-0.87	0.82-0.87	0.67-0.80	0.78-0.81	0.90-0.92
Gilman et al., 20059	0.87	0.82	0.88	0.70	0.72	0.87
Present study, 2008	0.73	0.73	0.75	0.76	0.76	0.76

These coefficients were similar in magnitude to those reported in other reliability analyses of the MSLSS in Canadian, Korean, Chinese, and Croatian samples (Table 1). The internal consistency of the MSLSS General scale was sufficiently high and fairly similar for the two schools (0.88 and 0.79, respectively). Comparative analysis of Cronbach's coefficient for the domains included and the schools surveyed revealed that the test had a high level of reliability.

The MSLSS adapted to Brazilian culture, available online¹⁰ and from the authors upon request, has produced results that indicate satisfactory equivalence to the U.S. version and suggest that it is a reliable, user-friendly option for evaluation of life satisfaction among Brazilian adolescents.

References

• ¹
  Proctor CL, Linley PA, Maltby J. Youth life satisfaction: a review of the literature. J Happiness Studies. 2009;10:583-630.
• ²
  Huebner ES, Gilman R, Suldo SM. Assessing perceived quality of life in children and youth. In: Smith SR, Handler L, editors. The clinical assessment of children and adolescents. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 2007. p. 347-63.
• ³
  Huebner ES, Gilman R, Ma C. Perceived quality of life of children and youth. In: Kenneth CL, Michalos AC, Sirgy MJ, editors. Handbook of social indicators and quality of life research. Amsterdam: Springer; 2012. p. 355-72.
• ⁴
  Huebner ES. Preliminary development and validation of a multidimensional life satisfaction scale for children. Psychol Assess. 1994;6:149-58.
• ⁵
  Guillemin F, Bombardier C, Beaton D. Cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures: literature review and proposed guidelines. J Clin Epidemiol. 1993;46:1417-32.
• ⁶
  Gilman R, Huebner ES, Tian L, Park N, O'Byrne J, Schiff M, et al. Cross-National Adolescent Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Reports: analyses of mean scores and response style differences. J Youth Adolescence. 2008;37:142-54.
• ⁷
  Huebner ES, Gilman R. An introduction to the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale. Soc Indic Res. 2002;60:115-22.
• ⁸
  Park N, Huebner ES, Laughlin JE, Valois RE, Gilman R. A cross-cultural comparison of the dimensions of child and adolescent life satisfaction reports. Soc Indic Res. 2004;66:61-79.
• ⁹
  Gilman R, Ashby JS, Sverko D, Florell D, Varjas K. The relationship between perfectionism and multidimensional life satisfaction among Croatian and American youth. Pers Individ Dif. 2005;39:155-66.
• ¹⁰
  de Barros LP. Tradução, adaptação transcultural para o português do Brasil e validação semântica da Multidimensional Students Life Satisfaction Scale. Portal Domínio Público [Internet]. 2009 [cited 2013 Dec 16]. http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/pesquisa/DetalheObraForm.do?select_action=&co_obra=190405
  » http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/pesquisa/DetalheObraForm.do?select_action=&co_obra=190405

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Mar 2014

History

• Received
  21 Apr 2013
• Accepted
  19 May 2013