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Cited by 311Psychological Well-being and Life SatisfactionPsychometric Methodologies and TestingMental Health Research Topics

Psychometric evaluation and predictive validity of Ryff's psychological well-being items in a UK birth cohort sample of women

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Abbott, Rosemary A, Ploubidis, George B, Huppert, Felicia A, Kuh, Diana, Wadsworth, Michael EJ, Croudace, Tim J·2006·Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
DOI 10.1186/1477-7525-4-76PMC PMC1634744
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Investigations of the structure of psychological well-being items are useful for advancing knowledge of what dimensions define psychological well-being in practice. Ryff has proposed a multidimensional model of psychological well-being and her questionnaire items are widely used but their latent structure and factorial validity remains contentious. METHODS: We applied latent variable models for factor analysis of ordinal/categorical data to a 42-item version of Ryff's psychological well-being scales administered to women aged 52 in a UK birth cohort study (n = 1,179). Construct (predictive) validity was examined against a measure of mental health recorded one year later. RESULTS: Inter-factor correlations among four of the first-order psychological well-being constructs were sufficiently high (> 0.80) to warrant a parsimonious representation as a second-order general well-being dimension. Method factors for questions reflecting positive and negative item content, orthogonal to the construct factors and assumed independent of each other, improved model fit by removing nuisance variance. Predictive validity correlations between psychological well-being and a multidimensional measure of psychological distress were dominated by the contribution of environmental mastery, in keeping with earlier findings from cross-sectional studies that have correlated well-being and severity of depression. CONCLUSION: Our preferred model included a single second-order factor, loaded by four of the six first-order factors, two method factors, and two more distinct first-order factors. Psychological well-being is negatively associated with dimensions of mental health. Further investigation of precision of measurement across the health continuum is required.

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  • A slightly altered version of the seven-item scale that was used in this study has been psychometrically evaluated and validated in a previous large-scale study.

    “A slightly altered version of the seven-item scale that was used in this study has been psychometrically evaluated and validated in a previous large-scale study (56).”

    From Purpose in life and use of preventive health care services (2014) · cites this paper as [56]

    The Methods (Measures) and Results report a large-scale psychometric evaluation of Ryff’s 42-item measure in 1,179 women; the Background explains that it has seven items per dimension. The paper does not evaluate a standalone seven-item scale, and the Discussion says none of the tested models fitted the data well. Thus it supports the claim of a related prior evaluation, but not validation of the seven-item scale as stated. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 23

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Authors
Abbott, R. A., Ploubidis, G. B., Huppert, F. A., Kuh, D., Wadsworth, M. E., & Croudace, T. J.
Affiliations
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • The Royal Free Hospital (GB)
Corresponding author
Abbott, Rosemary A
ORCID
Venue
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2006-10-04
Volume
4
Issue
1
Pages
76-76
ISSN
1477-7525 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/1477-7525-4-76
PMC
PMC1634744
OpenAlex
W2165598921
Cited by
311
References
10
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 18
FWCI
9.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Health and Quality of Life Outcomes (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Discovery Research Portal (University of Dundee) (publishedVersion)
  • LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
  • Research Bank (Australian Catholic University) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute for Health and Care Research (PHCS/C4/4/002)
  • Leverhulme Trust
  • Isaac Newton Trust
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
Keywords
Ryff psychological well-being, second-order factor structure, methodological factors, predictive validity, mental health, psychological distress, environmental mastery, women, middle-aged women, measurement precision
MeSH terms
Cross-Sectional Studies, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Personal Satisfaction, Psychometrics, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Class, Cohort Studies, Women's Health

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