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Is the meaning of subjective well-being similar in Latin American countries? A cross-cultural measurement invariance study of the WHO-5 well-being index during the COVID-19 pandemic
Author(s)
Tomás Caycho‐Rodríguez
Lindsey W. Vilca
Pablo D. Valencia
Carlos Carbajal‐León
Mario Reyes-Bossio
Michaël White
Claudio Rojas-Jara
Roberto Polanco-Carrasco
Miguel Gallegos
Mauricio Cervigni
Pablo Martino
Diego Alejandro Palacios
Rodrigo Moreta‐Herrera
Antonio Samaniego-Pinho
Marlon Elías Lobos-Rivera
Andrés Buschiazzo Figares
Diana Ximena Puerta-Cortés
Ibraín Enrique Corrales-Reyes
Raymundo Calderón
Ilka Franco Ferrari
Carmen Flores-Mendoza
Date Issued
6 de abril de 2023
Type
Article
Volume
11
Issue
1
Start Page
102
End Page
102
Abstract
BACKGROUND: There is an urgent need to assess changes in well-being on a multinational scale during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus culturally valid scales must be available. METHODS: With this in mind, this study examined the invariance of the WHO well-being index (WHO-5) among a sample of 5183 people from 12 Latin Americans countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay). RESULTS: The results of the present study indicate that the WHO-5 is strictly invariant across samples from different Latin American countries. Furthermore, the results of the IRT analysis indicate that all items of the WHO-5 were highly discriminative and that the difficulty required to respond to each of the five items is ascending. Additionally, the results indicated the presence of moderate and small size differences in subjective well-being among most countries. CONCLUSION: The WHO-5 is useful for assessing subjective well-being in 12 Latin American countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, since the differences between scores can be attributed to differences in well-being and not in other characteristics of the scale.
Keywords