Life satisfaction in chilean university students: An examination of the relation between gender and socioeconomic level

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to examine the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale in university students (MSLSS) (Huebner, 1998) in a sample of university students from northern, central and southern Chile, where indicators of reliability and construct validity were examined. Also, it seeks to describe the levels of life satisfaction of students and to examine differences between gender and between socioeconomic statuses. The study is quantitative with a cross-sectional descriptive-relational design. The Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale was applied to a sample of 306 university students in northern, central and southern Chile, as well as a questionnaire that collected sociodemographic variables. It was used confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate the model expected from the five factors of the 40-item version of the scale. The results showed the scale had adequate psychometric behavior in this type of population, where also high satisfaction levels in overall and specific domains were found, and group differences were found by gender but not by socioeconomic status.