Goal attainment scaling (GAS) is an internationally recognized measure that is widely used in educational, counseling, and clinical settings to identify and evaluate relevant goals for an individual. The GAS is an unusual measure because its content, which consists of goals, is formed by the respondent and/or users in the process of completing the…

The purposes of this paper are to highlight the foundations of multilevel construct validation, describe two methodological approaches and associated analytic techniques, and then apply these approaches and techniques to the multilevel construct validation of a widely-used school readiness measure called the Early Development Instrument (EDI;…

Whenever one uses a composite scale score from item responses, one is tacitly assuming that the scale is dominantly unidimensional. Investigating the unidimensionality of item response data is an essential component of construct validity. Yet, there is no universally accepted technique or set of rules to determine the number of factors to retain…

The objective of this study was to investigate the substantive aspect of construct validity of the Satisfaction with Life Scale adapted for Children (SWLS-C; Gadermann et al. in Soc Indic Res 96:229-247, "2010"). Specifically, the study examined the cognitive processes of children when responding to the items of the SWLS-C to find out how they…

The vast majority of measures have, at their core, a purpose of personal and social change. If test developers and users want measures to have personal and social consequences and impact, then it is critical to consider the consequences and side effects of measurement in the validation process itself. The consequential basis of test interpretation…

The satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) is a widely accepted and widely used tool for measuring well-being. Although its potential as a cross-cultural index is recognized, an introduction and systematic validation of the Hebrew version is needed. Thus, the purpose of this study is: (1) to describe the process of developing the Hebrew version of…

This study introduces the Satisfaction with Life Scale adapted for Children (SWLS-C) and presents psychometric findings regarding its validation. The SWLS-C was adapted from the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al. 1985), which is one of the most commonly used measures to assess satisfaction with life in adults. Three subject matter…

Confirmatory factor analysis of data from 1,346 respondents to the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) (C. Peterson and others, 1982) reveals that adequate fit is provided by a three-factor attributional style model that includes context-dependent item sets. Results suggest that there is no such thing as a nonsituational attributional style.…