Psychometric analysis of the Spanish version of Ryff's Psychological Well-Being scale in Chilean university students

Abstract

The study of psychological well-being, understood as optimal human functioning and the effort to achieve meaningful goals in life has recently become a central concept for understanding health. The present study aimed to conduct a psychometric analysis of the Spanish version of the Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-Being (SPWB) in a non-probabilistic sample of 699 Chilean university students between 18 and 25 years old, men and women. For this purpose, different analyses were carried out: confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha), and convergent validity with the Beck Depression Scale (BDI-IA). A second objective was to characterize the sample regarding their psychological well-being. The results show that the CFA has a good quality of fit (CFI 0.99) and high internal consistency (alpha 0.92). Divergent validity shows an inverse and highly significant relationship between Psychological Well-being and depressive symptomatology, with a more significant relationship in women. Self-acceptance was the scale with the best internal consistency. The scale with the lowest consistency was Mastery of the environment, which showed a high correlation with Self-acceptance and Purpose in life. The dimension with the highest score in this population was Personal Growth, and the one with the lowest score was Autonomy. The common factors of different Latin American studies on psychological well-being and the challenges of these results for developing strategies to promote mental health in the university population are discussed.