Life Satisfaction of Adolescents in Hunan, China: Reliability and Validity of Chinese Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS)

There are few short scales focused on life satisfaction for adolescents in China. This study aims to investigate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS) by survey of a random sample of 2,406 adolescents aged from 12 to 18 years old in Hunan, China. Internal consistency reliability was 0.772, 0.742 and 0.799 for the total sample, the boys and the girls, respectively; test–retest reliability ranged from 0.807 to 0.913 for five items and the total BMSLSS; all item total correlations ranged from 0.580 to 0.740 while inter item correlations ranged from 0.189 to 0.465. All five items were found to be loaded satisfactorily on a single factor model. BMSLSS was highly correlated with overall satisfaction and self-esteem. There were significant differences between genders for domains of friends, school, and self and for overall life satisfaction. We conclude that the Chinese version of the BMSLSS is a reliable and valid instrument, with good construct validity for Chinese adolescents of both genders.