Validity Evidence for the Social Well-Being Scale in the Brazilian Population
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26439/persona2025.n2.8631Keywords:
Social well-being, factor analysis, psychological assessment, health promotionAbstract
Health and well-being constitute a critical source of both financial and social capital for the sustainable development of countries and communities. In the Brazilian context, however, there is a notable shortage of validated instruments designed to assess well-being from an interrelational perspective. Thus, the present study aims to present evidence of the validity of the Social Well-being Scale for Brazil. The participants were 214 Brazilian subjects, 80 % women, aged between 18 and 77 years (M = 32.75; SD = 10.68), who completed the social well-being scale and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis. The results identified a five-factor model with satisfactory alphas (Social Integration: α = 0.80, ωt = 0.82; Social Acceptance: α = 0.84, ωt = 0.87; Social Contribution: α = 0.84, ωt = 0.83; Social Actualization: α = 0.66, ωt = 0.84; and Social Coherence: α = 0.63, ωt = 0.71; Total Scale: α = 0.89; ωt = 0.95) and adequate fit indices: CFI: 0.95; TLI: 0.94; RMSEA: 0.06 (C.I. = 0.05–0.07). The scale showed a significant association with the GHQ-12, providing validity evidence based on relations to other variables. The instrument contributes to the expansion of studies on social well-being in the Brazilian context.
Downloads
References
Babalola, S., & Ajibola, O. (2022). Corporate ethical values and organizational justice as determinants of workplace stress, employees’ psychological and social well-being. African Journal of Behavioural and Scale Development Research, 4(2), 27-37. https://ojs.abreap.org/index.php/journal/article/view/134
Barrientos, J., Cárdenas, M., Gómez, F., & Guzmán, M. (2016). Gay men and male-to-female transgender persons in Chile: An exploratory quantitative study on stigma, discrimination, victimization, happiness and social well-being. En T. Köllen (Ed.), Sexual orientation and transgender issues in organizations. Global perspectives on LGBT workforce diversity (pp. 253-270). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29623-4_15
Bilbao, M., López, V., Torres-Vallejos, J., Ascorra, P., & Páez, D. (2025). Adaptación de la Escala de Bienestar Social para profesores y personal escolar. Revista de Psicología, 43(1), 29-52. https://doi.org/10.18800/psico.202501.002
Blanco, A., & Díaz, D. (2005). El bienestar social: su concepto y medición. Psicothema, 17(4), 582-589. https://www.psicothema.com/pdf/3149.pdf
Borges, L. de O., & Argolo, J. C. T. (2002). Adaptação e validação de uma escala de bem-estar psicológico para uso em estudos ocupacionais. Avaliação Psicológica, 1, 17–27. http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1677-04712002000100003
Brown, T. A. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (2.a ed.). Guilford Press.
Byrne, B. M. (2010). Structural equation modeling with AMOS (2.a ed.). Routledge.
Cassepp-Borges, V., Balbinotti, M. A. A., & Teodoro, M. L. M. (2010). Tradução e validação de conteúdo: uma proposta para a adaptação de instrumentos. En L. Pasquali (Org.), Instrumentação psicológica: fundamentos e práticas (pp. 506-520). ArtMed.
Cicognani, E., Pirini C., Keyes C., Joshanloo, M., Rostami, R., & Nosratabadi, M. (2008). Social participation, sense of community and social well being: A study on American, Italian and Iranian university students. Social Indicators Research, 89(1), 97–112 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9222-3
Disabato, D. J., Goodman, F. R., Kashdan, T. B., Short, J. L., & Jarden, A. (2016). Different types of well-being? A cross-cultural examination of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Psychological Assessment, 28(5), 471–482. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000209
Etikan, I., Alkassim, R., & Abubakar, S. (2016). Comparison of snowball sampling and sequential sampling technique. Biometrics & Biostatistics International Journal, 3(1), 6-7.
Gallagher, M. W., Lopez, S. J., & Preacher, K. J. (2009). The hierarchical structure of well-being. Journal of Personality, 77(4), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00573.x
Goldberg, D. (1972). The detection of psychiatric illness by questionnaire: A technique for the identification and assessment of non-psychotic psychiatric illness. Oxford University Press.
Guerrero Garcete, J. D. (2025). La relación entre sentido de comunidad en el barrio, bienestar psicológico y bienestar social en adultos residentes del barrio Dr. Ricardo Brugada (La Chacarita) de Asunción. Revista Científica de la Facultad de Filosofía, 21(1), 24-39. https://revistascientificas.una.py/index.php/rcff/article/view/5009
Hair, J. F. Jr., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2018). Multivariate data analysis (8.a ed.). Cengage.
Helliwell, J. F., Layard, R., Sachs, J. D., De Neve, J.-E., Aknin, L. B., & Wang, S. (Eds.). (2024). World Happiness Report 2024. Wellbeing Research Centre. https://www.worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/
Hu, L.-T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
Joshanloo, M., Sirgy, M. J., & Park, J. (2018). Directionality of the relationship between social well-being and subjective well-being: Evidence from a 20-year longitudinal study. Quality of Life Research, 27(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-018-1865-9
Keyes, C. L. M. (1998). Social well-being. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61(2), 121-140. https://doi.org/10.2307/2787065
Kuipers, S. J., Cramm, J. M. & Nieboer, A. P. (2019). The importance of patient-centered care and co-creation of care for satisfaction with care and physical and social well-being of patients with multi-morbidity in the primary care setting. BMC Health Services Research, 19(13), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3818-y
Laca Arocena, F. A., Mejía Ceballos, J. C., & Yañez Velasco, C. (2010). Identidad mexicana e interés político: predictores de bienestar social y anomia. Acta Universitaria, 20(2), 40-49. https://doi.org/10.15174/au.2010.79
Lages, A., Magalhães, E., Antunes, C., & Ferreira, C. (2018). Social well-being scales: Validity and reliability evidence in the Portuguese context. Psicologia, 32(2), 15-26. https://doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v32i2.1334
Li, M., Yang, D., Ding, C., & Kong, F. (2015). Validation of the social well-being scale in a Chinese sample and invariance across gender. Social Indicators Research, 121(2), 607-618. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0639-1
López, V., Torres-Vallejos, J., Ascorra, P., González, L., Ortiz, S., & Bilbao, M. (2021). Contributions of individual, family, and school characteristics to Chilean students’ social well-being at school. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.620895
MacCallum, R. C., Browne, M. W., & Sugawara, H. M. (1996). Power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modeling. Psychological Methods, 1(2), 130-149. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.1.2.130
Negrini, A., Corbière, M., Fortin, G., & Lecomte, T. (2014). Psychosocial well-being construct in people with severe mental disorders enrolled in supported employment programs. Community Mental Health Journal, 50(8), 932-42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-014-9717-8
Oliveira, T. A. A., Gouveia, V. V., Ribeiro, M. G. C., Oliveira, K. G., De Melo, R. L. P., & Montagna, E. (2023). General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): New evidence of construct validity. Ciência e Saúde Coletiva, 28(3), 803-810. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232023283.09452022
Pan, J., Ip, E. H., & Dubé, L. (2017). An alternative to post hoc model modification in confirmatory factor analysis: The Bayesian lasso. Psychological Methods, 22(4), 687-704. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000112
Park, C. G. (2023). Implementing alternative estimation methods to test the construct validity of Likert-scale instruments. Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing, 29(2), 85-90. https://doi.org/10.4069/kjwhn.2023.06.14.2
Pasquali, L. (2010). Instrumentação psicológica: fundamentos e práticas. Artmed.
Saasa, S., Okech, D., Choi, Y. J., Nackerud, L., & Littleton, T. (2022). Social exclusion, mental health, and social well-being among African immigrants in the United States. International Social Work, 65(4), 787-803. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0020872820963425
Salehi, A., Marzban, M., Sourosh, M., Sharif, F., Nejabat, M., & Imanieh, M. H. (2017). Social well-being and related factors in students of school of nursing and midwifery. International Journal of Community Based Nursing and Midwifery, 5(1), 82-90. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5219568/pdf/IJCBNM-5-82.pdf
Santana, V. S., & Gondim, S. M. G. (2016). Regulação emocional, bem-estar psicológico e bem-estar subjetivo. Estudos de Psicologia, 21(1), 58-68. https://doi.org/10.5935/1678-4669.20160007
Valencia Chávez, G. C., De la Torre González, M., & Flores Herrera, L. M. (2020). Escala de Bienestar Social, referente del binomio salud-enfermedad. Vertientes, 23(1-2), 5-11.
Veenhoven, R. (2017). Co-development of happiness research: Addition to “Fifty years after the social indicator movement”. Social Indicators Research, 135(3), 1001-1007. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1554-z
Walker, J. T., & Maddan, S. (2012). Statistics in criminology and criminal justice: Analysis and interpretation (3.a ed.). Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Xia, Y., & Yang, Y. (2019). RMSEA, CFI, and TLI in structural equation modeling with ordered categorical data: The story they tell depends on the estimation methods. Behavior Research Methods, 51(1), 409-428. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-1055-2
Zhang, W., Balloo, K., Hosein, A., Medland, E. (2024). A scoping review of well-being measures: Conceptualisation and scales for overall well-being. BMC Psychology, 12, a585. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02074-0
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Acceptance for publication implies the transfer of printing and reproduction rights, by any form and means, to the publisher, while the author retains the intellectual property of the article.








