Michael Stevens, PhD, ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY & LUCIAN BLAGA UNIVERSITY Petru-Madalin Constantinescu, MA, UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST

Lavinia Uscatescu, BA, BABES BOLYAI UNIVERSITY Andreea Butucescu, MA, OVIDIUS UNIVERSITY Bogdan Cezar Ion, PhD, UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST Cristina Gabriela Sandu, BA, UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST

Introduction
Over the past decades, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) has proved to be one of the most broadly applicable instruments with which to measure the construct of subjective wellbeing (Diener et al., 1985). SWLS has been shown to have very sound psychometric properties. In previous research, Stevens, Constatinescu, and Lambru (2006) adapted the SWLS into the Romanian language using the widely established standard procedures of transliteration and back-translation (Brislin, 1970), demonstrating the temporal stability of the Romanian SWLS (Butcher & Gur, 1974). In the current study, we were interested in further demonstrating the reliability and validity of the Romanian SWLS.

Method
Participants
We recruited 73 volunteers (males = 12, females = 61), between 19 and 50 years of age (M = 28.703, SD = 7.924). Most were ethnically Romanian (85.0%), Orthodox (84.0%), university educated (52.8%), never married or engaged (50.7%), and without children (46.9%). The sample reported a median monthly income of 200-300.

Measures
We selected and administered five instruments that we considered to be appropriate for demonstrating the concurrent and convergent validity of the Romanian SWLS: the Romanian SWLS Peer-Report Version (SWLS Peer), the Center for Epidemiological Studies - Depression Scale (CES-D), the State Self-Esteem Scale - Current Thoughts (SGC), the Hospital Anxiety Scale (HAS), and Hospital Depression Scale (HAD). For the SWLS Peer, we transformed the items from the Romanian (SWLS (Stevens et al., 2006) from the first person singular to the third person singular. For example, I am satisfied with my life became He/She is satisfied with his/her life. When we administered this scale along with the others, we instructed participants to ask a close relative or friend to complete the SWLS Peer with them in mind. This scale was administered both online and in paper-and-pencil format. The CES-D (Radloff, 1977) is a self-report scale that measures depressive symptoms in the general population. The CES-D has been translated into the Romanian language and equivalence to the original scale has been verified in previous research. The SGU is an index of self-esteem that correlates 0.82 with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The SGU has been translated into the Romanian language and adapted by Professor Marian Mihai (2009), who granted permission for its use in the current study.

Reliability Cronbach 0.82 Number of Items 5

Validity
Measure SWLS SWLS Peer 0.57** CES-D -0.54** SGC 0.57** HAS -0.69** HAD -0.41**

The HAS and HAD scales have performed well in assessing the incidence and severity of anxiety and depressive disorders, respectively, in medical/surgical and psychiatric patients in hospital settings and in the general population (Snaith, 2003). Translation into the Romanian language and further validation of the HAS and HAD have been undertaken by Professor Maria Ladea (2007).

Procedure
After receiving permission to use the most appropriate and readily available instruments in our follow-up evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Romanian SWLS, we transposed these measures into two online forms using Google docs. Links to these online documents were then disseminated to various psychology-related websites and online discussion groups. Interested individuals were invited to complete the forms either by printing out a hard copy, filling in the blank spaces, and returning the completed form, or by electronically selecting and entering the most appropriate answer while online. Respondents were encouraged to take their time and to provide honest, thoughtful responses. Ten participants completed the measures in paper-and-pencil format. Each participant took approximately 30 minutes to complete all of the measures. Respondents answers were automatically transferred to an output data form, with the data subjected to a series of statistical analyses.

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed)

Discussion
The purpose of the current research was to further evaluate the reliability and validity of the Romanian SWLS. The Romanian SWLS was shown to have strong internal consistency reliability as reflected in the Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.82. More importantly, the Romanain SWLS was been shown to have acceptable concurrent and convergent validity as indicated by significant moderate positive correlations with peer reports of subjective wellbeing and an index of self-esteem as well as by moderate negative correlations with anxiety and depressive symptoms and disorders; unexpectedly, however, there was a moderate association between the Romanian SWLS and level of depressive symptoms as measured by the

References
Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for cross-cultural research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1, 85-216. Butcher, J., N., & Gur. R. (1974). A Hebrew translation of the MMPI: An assessment of the translation adequacy and preliminary validation. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 5, 220-227. Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75. Ladea, M. (2005). Validarea scalei de anxietate i depresie (HADS). Revista Romn de Psihiatrie, 3-4(7), 104109. Marian, M. (2009). Validation of a scale for measuring self-esteem. Revista de Psihologie colar, 2(4), 40-49. Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population.

CES-D.
Further research is needed to establish the construct validity of the Romanian SWLS. Once established, efforts will be directed toward the construction of a set of Romanian national norms so that the Romanian SWLS can be meaningfully used in basic and applied research and in clinical practice.

Applied Psycholological Measurement, 1, 38540. Snaith, P. R. (2003). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 1, 29. Stevens, M. J., Constantinescu, P-M., & Lambru, I. (2006, August). Romanian translation of the Aspiration Index. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.