Introduction: The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin in 1985, comprises five items with seven response options in terms of agreement–disagreement. Recently, there has been a suggestion to reduce the response options of the SWLS to optimize its applicability in different cultural contexts.Objective: The study aims to assess the psychometric properties of the SWLS with five response options in the Colombian population. Specifically, we studied the dimensionality, invariance by gender and age (among a group of adolescents and emerging adults under 25 years and a group of adults of intermediate age and established adulthood under 59 years), convergent validity (with optimism), and divergent (with pessimism) and concurrent validity with other measures of well-being (flourishing, positive, and negative affects).Methodology: This project was a cross-sectional study using a non-probabilistic sample of the general population. Participants were included if they identified themselves as Colombian and were at least 18 years of age. The final sample comprised 1,255 participants. The average age was 25.62 years (SD = 8.60) ranging from 18 to 67 years of age, and 35.8% of the participants were men. In addition to SWLS, we used the Flourishing Scale (FS), Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), and Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE).Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.842), composite reliability (0.851), and average variance extracted (0.537) showed very good values. CFA was conducted to test the one-dimensional structure of FS, showing excellent goodness of fit [χ(5)2 = 15.774, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.992, TLI = 0.985, RMSEA = 0.042, 90% RMSEA CI (0.020, 0.066), and SRMR = 0.016]. The correlations calculated among life satisfaction (SWLS) with flourishing (FS), positive and negative affects (SPANE), optimism, and pessimism (LOT-R) were statistically significant and as expected. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender and age were confirmed. Percentiles were provided for the total score and for age.Conclusions: The SWLS with five response options has adequate psychometric properties in the Colombian population, and the use of this version (with 5 response options) is recommended due to its greater applicability.

There is increasing interest in the study of flourishing as an indicator of subjective wellbeing. The objective herein was to adapt and study the psychometric properties of Diener’s Flourishing Scale (FS) among the Colombian population. Accordingly, a cross-sectional study was conducted with a non-probability sample of 1255 Colombian adults. The scale’s structure, invariance by gender, and convergent and concurrent validity were studied from a confirmatory perspective using structural equation models. The confirmatory factor analysis showed excellent fit indicators for the one-dimensional structure (CFI = 0.985, RMSEA = 0.039, SRMR = 0.020) as well as for the convergent (CFI = 0.909, RMSEA = 0.050, SRMR = 0.063) and concurrent (CFI = 0.966, RMSEA = 0.036, SRMR = 0.041) validity models. The correlations calculated among flourishing with positive and negative effects (PANAS), satisfaction with life (SWL), and optimism and pessimism (LOT) were statistically significant and as expected. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender was confirmed. Percentiles were provided for the total score. The FS scale was a valid and reliable measure to assess high levels of wellbeing among the Colombian population.

The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) is widely used to measure emotional experiences, but not much is known about its cross-cultural utility. The present study evaluated the measurement invariance of the SPANE across adult samples (N = 12,635; age range = 18-85 years; 58.2% female) from 13 countries (China, Colombia, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, and the United States). Configural and partial scalar invariance of the SPANE were supported. Three items capturing specific negative emotions (sad, afraid, and angry) were found to be culturally noninvariant. Our findings suggest that the SPANE’s positive emotion terms and general negative emotion terms (e.g., negative and unpleasant) might be more suitable for cross-cultural studies on emotions and well-being, whereas caution is needed when comparing countries using the SPANE’s specific negative emotion items.

El estudio tiene como objetivo obtener información para población cubana acerca de la validez predictiva de la EADG para detectar personas con trastornos psicopatológicos, así como para diferenciar ansiedad y depresión. Se trabajó con una muestra no probabilística, integrada por 548 sujetos, de los cuales el 31,2% tenían un trastorno psicopatológico diagnosticado por un psiquiatra o psicólogo. Para el análisis de los datos se utilizó la metodología análisis de las curvas ROC. Se encontró que la EADG mostró un adecuado valor predictivo para identificar a personas con trastornos psicopatológicos, con escasa capacidad para distinguir trastornos de ansiedad y depresión. Nuestros resultados apoyan la estrategia evaluativa recomendada por los autores de aplicar primeramente los ítems de despistaje.

The aim of this study was to examine whether a lecture on hypnosis can modify attitudes and misconceptions about hypnosis. The sample consisted of 97 health professionals from institutions in Havana City, Cuba. Group 1 consisted of 46 participants who received a lecture on hypnosis. Group 2 consisted of 51 participants who received a lecture about urology. and Beliefs toward Hypnosis–Therapist was applied before and after the lecture. Results indicated that there were significant differences between the groups: Group 1 showed more positive attitudes toward hypnosis. However, both groups showed similar misconceptions about hypnosis and memory, which changed significantly in Group 1 after receiving the lecture about hypnosis but not in Group 2. Therefore, the lecture about hypnosis had a significant impact in correcting participants' misconceptions about memory and hypnosis.

In these times of pandemic, the acceptance or rejection of vaccines has become increasingly clear, with a considerable rise in the anti-vaccine movement in Spain. It is important to understand the attitudes that lead a person to refuse vaccination in order to develop more effective public health campaigns. The objective of this study has been to study the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX) scale in a Spanish sample. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling have been used to study the psychometric properties of the VAX. Likewise, the measurement invariance by gender and educational level has been studied. The structure of four related factors for VAX is confirmed, as well as its predictive value, since the factor “trust in the benefit of the vaccine” clearly predicts the choice to be vaccinated. The strong measurement invariance by gender and educational level is also confirmed. The comparison of latent means between groups indicates that there are no differences by gender in any factor. However, people with a high educational level present higher scores in factors “concern about unforeseen future effects”, “concern about commercial effects and speculation” and “preference for natural immunity”. The VAX is presented as a reliable and valid tool to assess four different factors related to attitudes towards vaccines in Spain. Future studies of its cross-cultural invariance may help to determine the main factors that lead people not to be vaccinated in order to develop more effective public health campaigns.