Multidimensional life satisfaction reports of middle school students with serious emotional disturbance

This study evaluated the potential utility of the Multidimensional Students ' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS; Huebner, 1994) with a sample of 49 studen ts in Grades 6 through 8 identified as seriously emotionally disturbed (SED ) and a comparison sample of 49 matched non-SED students. The initial inter nal consistency reliabilities for the MSLSS domains suggested the need to m odify the scale for use with middle school SED students. Following scale mo difications, reliability estimates for SED students reached acceptable leve ls for research purposes on five of the six domains. The results also yield ed promising, but tentative, support for the validity of the MSLSS when use d with SED students. Subsequent comparisons of the mean ratings on the life satisfaction domains revealed that SED students reported lower levels of s atisfaction with peer friendships than did their non-SED counterparts. Also , relationships between domain-specific and global life satisfaction judgme nts differed for the SED students, suggesting that SED students formulate t heir overall life satisfaction judgments differently than their non-SED pee rs. Limitations of the current study and implications for future research a re discussed.