Cross-Cultural Examination of the Community Reinforcement Approach Happiness Scale (CRA-HS): Testing measurement invariance in five countries

PILATTI, ANGELINA; BRAVO, ADRIAN J.; VINGERHOETS, AD; ROOZEN, HENDRIK G.; MEZQUITA, LAURA

Current Psychology

Springer

Año: 2020

1046-1310

AbstractThe Community Reinforcement Approach Happiness Scale (CRA-HS) is widely used for assessing the quality of life in addictiontreatment, but the amount of research on the psychometric properties has been scant. The present study sought to (a) test formeasurement invariance of the CRA-HS across college students (n = 3388) in five countries (i.e., United States., Spain,Argentina, Uruguay, and the Netherlands); (b) evaluate differences on the CRA-HS (i.e., latent mean differences) as a functionof sex and country, and (c) compare criterion-related validity. Using multi-group confirmatory factor analyses, we found ashortened 10-item version of the CRA-HS to be invariant across sex, but only configural and metric invariance was found acrosscountries. Across all countries, criterion-related validity of the CRA-HS scores across different countries emerged. Our findingsserve as a foundation for future cross-cultural work testing models in which subjective well-being (i.e., happiness) is an importantclinical/routine outcome among college students