LAUSR

Research on adolescents’ psychological well-being has been rare and lacks a sound theoretical framework. The International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB) is using the Children’s Worlds Psychological Well-Being Scale (CW-PSWBS) as a measure based on Ryff’s model of psychological well-being. However, both Ryff’s model appropriateness to adolescent population and its cross-country comparability are unclear. In order to cross-country compare statistics obtained from adolescents by using this instrument, its measurement invariance needs to be checked. The aim of this paper is to test the fit and the cross-country comparability of CW-PSWBS among 13 countries using 12-year-olds samples from ISCWeB survey wave 2 and 3. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to assess the extent to which it is valid to make cross-national comparisons using this measure has been used. Our results suggest that it is meaningful to compare correlations and regressions of a 5-item version of CW-PSWBS scale only in wave 2 data, when the item on self-acceptance dimension is left out. In wave 3, one additional item does not get support for metric invariance. However, scalar invariance is not supported in any case and therefore cross-national comparisons of mean scores on CW-PSWBS are not statistically meaningful.