Flourish Index and Secure Flourish Index – Development and Validation

35 Pages Posted: 26 Mar 2018

See all articles by Dorota Węziak-Białowolska

Dorota Węziak-Białowolska

Harvard University - T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Eileen McNeely

Harvard University - T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Tyler VanderWeele

Harvard University

Date Written: October 21, 2017

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate psychometric properties of the newly proposed Flourish Index (FI) and Secure Flourish Index (SFI). Data were obtained from the Health and Well-Being Survey – conducted in June and July 2017, with responses from 4210 residents of North Carolina, USA.

Exploratory and confirmatory factor models were used. An exploratory approach was used to investigate item groupings. Confirmatory factor models were used to investigate the hierarchical structure of the indices, level of common variance and percent of uncontaminated correlations. The coefficient of omega hierarchical was computed to establish uni-dimensionality and reliability of the indices. Configural, metric and scalar measurement invariance were examined to provide evidence on the universality of the indices. Convergent validity and discriminant validity were assessed.

This study provided support that FI and SFI can be used in empirical research. Our results confirmed groupings of items into domains of flourishing as well hierarchical structure of both indices. With application of the factor analytical framework support for their uni-dimensionality was found. The analysis revealed that scores derived from FI and SFI primarily reflected a single common source, flourishing and secure flourishing, respectively, implying legitimate use of raw scores (average or sum) for their measurement. Both indices demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. Evidence was also found that both instruments were measurement invariant.

Keywords: flourish index and secure flourish index; factor analysis; measurement invariance; bi-factor model; psychometric properties

Suggested Citation

Węziak-Białowolska, Dorota and McNeely, Eileen and VanderWeele, Tyler, Flourish Index and Secure Flourish Index – Development and Validation (October 21, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3145336 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3145336

Dorota Węziak-Białowolska (Contact Author)

Harvard University - T.H. Chan School of Public Health ( email )

677 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA MA 02115
United States

Eileen McNeely

Harvard University - T.H. Chan School of Public Health ( email )

677 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA MA 02115
United States

Tyler VanderWeele

Harvard University ( email )

1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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