Measuring subjective well-being: development of the Subjective Well-being Assessment Scale in West Bank and Gaza Strip

Background The connection between subjective well-being (SWB) and the development of people and nations across the world is today recognized by many different organization (e.g. World Health Organization, European Commission, World Bank, International Monetary Fund). SWBcan be definedin terms of good mental state, including all of the various evaluation, positive and negative, that people make of their lives and the affect reaction of people to their experiences (Diener, 2006). Such definition provided a wider framework for the comprehension of SWB by including the evaluation of both objective and subjective qualities that contributes to the well-being of individuals and by excluding the simplistic idea of gross domestic product (GDP) as a unique measure of happiness.In fact, a large number of studies acknowledge the importance of SWB on many good outcomes (e.g. life-expectancy, immune system, adjustment to traumatic events). Despite its paramount importance, to our knowledge there is paucity of reliable quantitative instrument able to measure SWB in the Gazan context meaning that the call for internationallymonitoring (Stiglitz et al., 2009) levels of SWB cannot be satisfied Method The present studyis aimed at developing the Subjective Well-being Assessment Scale (SWBAS): a brief quantitative tool aimed at measuring SWB in the Palestinianthe populationin Gazan, West Bank and Israel. Following recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) as well as the theoretical socio-psychological traditions, the measurewas conceptualized and operationalized as assessing three inter-related domains: life evaluation (reflective assessment on a person’s life), affect (individuals’ feeling and emotional states) and eudaimonia (sense of meaning and functioning in life).The sample (N=423) was composed of Arab-Israeli, Palestinians from West Bank and Palestinian from Gaza (male-female rate was 32-68%, mean age = 35.3±8.5). Data analysis entailed common procedures of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis along with reliability analysis. Finally, scores to General health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Positive and Negative affect (PANAS-20) were included in order to test concurrent and divergent validity. Results Data analyses supported a model of measurement for the Subjective Well-being Assessment Scale composed of 24 items loading on six different underlying factors: positive functioning, negative functioning, spirituality and religion, social functioning, human security, economic situation. Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (χ2(227)=373.3; NC= 1.6; RMSEA= .038; SRMR = .048; NNFI =.97; CFI = .97) suggested that the questionnaire is psychometrically robust, the measures were generally reliable (αMIN- αMax =.71-.79) and scores resembled statistically normal distributions. Interpetation. Given the growing interest in the concept of SWB, the availability of a brief and psychometrically robust instrument should be of great value in monitoring trajectories of psychological functioning and perceptions of “happiness” in the Palestinian population.In addition, the opportunity to gather reliable information of SWB contributed to the process of data- exchange and it enables the comparison of findings within the scientific and international community.