DIMENSIONS OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AFTER SPINAL-CORD INJURY - AN EMPIRICAL-ANALYSIS BY GENDER AND RACE ETHNICITY/

Objective: The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to identify the underlying dimensions of subjective well-being after spinal cord injur y (SCI), and (2) to develop reliable scales based on measurement of th ese dimensions. Design: A field study was conducted by surveying the s ubjective well-being of two large samples of participants with SCI. Pr incipal axis factor analysis with varimax rotation was applied to part icipant responses to 50 subjective well-being items. Setting: All part icipants were selected from the outpatient files of two midwestern reh abilitation hospitals and from a large southeastern rehabilitation hos pital. Participants: There were a total of 1,032 participants, 435 fro m the Midwest and 597 from the Southeast. Main Outcome Measures: The L ife Situation Questionnaire-revised version (LSQ-R) was used to measur e subjective well-being. It included two prominent sections, one for l ife satisfaction (20 items) and the other for self-reported problems ( 30 items). Results: Seven subjective well-being factor scales were ide ntified across the full participant sample: Engagement, Negative Affec t, Health Problems, Career Opportunities, Finances, Living Circumstanc es, and Interpersonal Relations. The average alpha coefficient was .86 for the factor scales. Separate analyses of the midwestern and southe astern samples suggested stability of the factor structure, although g ender and race/ ethnicity were related to subtle differences in subjec tive wellbeing. Conclusions: The results suggest that rehabilitation p rofessionals need to pay attention to multiple aspects of subjective w ell-being after SCI. (C) 1998 by the American Congress of Rehabilitati on Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabili tation.