Validation of three Setswana measures for psychological wellbeing

Abstract

Orientation: From the perspective of positive psychology, it is important to evaluate people's strengths. There is, however, a lack of validated measures for these purposes in many of the South African official languages. As language is a medium for cultural meanings, measures of mental health should be validated in the mother tongue of the people involved.Research purpose: The aim of this study was therefore to explore the psychometric properties of Setswana versions of three measures of psychological wellbeing, namely the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC) (the 29-item version) (Antonovsky, 1987), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larson & Griffen, 1985) and Affectometer 2 (AFM) (Kammann & Flett, 1983).Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey design was implemented for this study. Questionnaires were translated, back-translated and evaluated in a researchcommittee approach. A stratified sample of 738 Setswana-speaking participants completed the questionnaires in randomly selected sites of the North West province of South Africa as part of the multi-disciplinary Transition and Health during Urbanisation of South Africans project. Reliability indices, means, standard deviations, ranges of scores, patterns of correlations and factor structures were established for all the scales. Main findings:The present Setswana SWLS and AFM are reliable and valid for use in this group, as is, to some extent, the SOC. The factor structures of the three scales were also consistent with the latent factor structures of the original scales. Practical implications:These validated measures are instruments for use in the clinical, community and work contexts of Setswana-speaking people.

A partial validation of the WHOQOL-OLD in a sample of older people in South Africa

“…South Africa has 11 official languages. A study by Wissing et al ( 45 ) describes language as the medium through which cultural meaning is created. It is recommended that future studies could consider validation of the WHOQOL-OLD modules in the mother tongue of the people involved.…”

Validation of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire in a South African context

“…Test-retest reliability study yielded results of a 0.82 index, and a Cronbach alpha-reliability index of 0.87 (Diener et al 1985). Wissing et al (2010) who translated the SWLS into Afrikaans and Setswana also found it to be reliable and valid for use in South Africa. In the current study a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.74 was found for the SWLS.…”

Factorial validity of the Twi versions of five measures of mental health and well-being in Ghana

“…The authors, however, acknowledged the independence of positive and negative affect and cautioned that in some circumstances it might be useful to score the positive and negative subscales separately. On the contrary, a two-factor solution (AFM-PA and AFM-NA) was reported after CFA and EFA were applied to a dataset collated from a sample of Setswana-speaking South Africans [ 49 ].…”

“…Presently, there is a general lack of research that investigates the evidence for the validity of the Twi version of mental health and well-being measurement instruments in Ghana, particularly in a rural poor context. The selected measurement instruments have shown promise in previous African studies [ 21 – 23 , 47 , 49 ], are all relatively short, and together assess facets relevant to the evaluation of mental health and well-being in the African context. The selection of these measures was also supported by the growing research evidence that suggests that the complete evaluation of mental health and well-being should also be complemented by the assessment of negative experiences and emotional states [ 9 ], considering the complex interactions between positive aspects of human functioning and negative experiences [ 8 , 9 ] that, together, influence thinking patterns, feelings, and behavior of people.…”