Happiness Measured by a Single Item: Psychometric Evaluation of the Arabic Version of Fordyce Global Happiness Scale Among University Students and Mothers of Children With Intellectual Disabilities

OBJECTIVES: Aiming to validate the Fordyce Global Happiness Scale in Arabic, this cross-sectional study recruited two convenience Saudi samples of 422 university students and 85 mothers of children with intellectual disabilities. METHODS: Among students, a latent variable model was used to examine scale convergent/divergent validity relative to life satisfaction and depressive symptomatology. Scale cutoffs were assessed in the two samples through cluster analyses and ROC analysis. Differences in happiness were evaluated between mothers and students and across student groups of gender, academic degree, and type of study (practical vs. theoretical). RESULTS: The latent variable model expressed good fit, showing satisfaction with life and positive affect as significant positive predictors of happiness, which was inversely associated with somatic complaints and negative affect. Two-step cluster analysis resulted in a two-cluster solution, which revealed three cutoffs (among students: < 5, 5-8, > 8 and among mothers: < 4, 4-8, > 8), which significantly classified the samples according to the levels of happiness into low/mild, moderate, and high. ROC analysis revealed an optimal cutoff of 4.5 with high sensitivity (100%) and acceptable specificity (74% and 62%) among students and mothers, respectively. The highest and lowest levels of all depressive symptoms were noticed in participants with happiness scores (< 4.5 or < 5) and > 8, respectively. Known-group validity was signaled by lower overall happiness scores in the mother sample relative to university students. CONCLUSIONS: Fordyce Global Happiness Scale captures happiness as a distinct construct, which relates to the cognitive and emotional components of well-being and physical symptoms of psychopathology.