Validity, reliability and acceptability of the Japanese version of the General Well-Being Schedule (GWBS)

The General Well-Being Schedule (GWBS) is a widely used, self-administered questionnaire to measure subjective well-being. It contains 18 items and wa s originally hypothesized to have six domains; however, the following studi es suggest other factorial models. We devised the schedule's Japanese editi on following the standard procedure and tested its psychometric properties considering Japanese cultural characteristics. Subjects were 1224 middle-ag ed participants undergoing health checkups in Adachi, Tokyo. The reliabilit y of the original version was high: alpha coefficient, 0.90; test-retest Pe arson's correlation coefficient, 0.81; and intra-class correlation coeffici ent, 0.85. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the structural validity o f the 6-factor, the following 3-factor and 4-factor models (goodness of fit index: 0.932, 0.946 and 0.937, respectively). A new 3-factor model develop ed after the exclusion of item 11, which had no correlation with the other variables, was proved to have a higher fitness index (0.958) than the other models. This 17-item version showed adequate reliability (alpha coefficien t, 0.91; test-retest Pearson's correlation coefficient, 0.81; and intra-cla ss correlation coefficient, 0.85) and concurrent validity compared with the General Health Questionnaire, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Center for Ep idemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Self-rating Depression Scale and Prof ile Of Mood State (correlation coefficients: -0.75 to -0.53). The median ti me required to complete the schedule was five minutes. Completing this inst rument was easy for 80% of the subjects. These findings attest to the adequ acy of the 17-item Japanese GWBS for the comprehensive assessment of indivi dual inner state.