Designing and validating psychometric properties of the Single-Question Life Satisfaction Scale

Single-question instruments have been among the most effective proceedings in the field of psychometrics in recent past decades. Therefore, the current research was conducted to design and validate the psychometric properties of the single-question life satisfaction scale. The present research method was descriptive-survey. The statistical population of this study included all the university students of Hamedan province; 600 subjects were selected from this population by a possible multi-stage cluster sampling. The research instruments encompassed the single-question life satisfaction scale, the Ryff psychological well-being scale, and the symptom Check-list (SCL-25). In addition, the reliability of retest and the validity of criterion were used to analyze the data. The results illustrated that the reliability score of retest was 0.74, convergent validity with psychological well-being 0.61, and divergent validity with anxiety and depression were -0.36 and -0.53, respectively, which is considered desirable. Furthermore, the life satisfaction mean difference of men and women was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Accordingly, this scale possesses acceptable validity and reliability and is suitable for measuring the structure of overall life satisfaction. Consequently, the single-question life satisfaction scale can be used in immediate studies, as well as survey studies with a large sample size.