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Life Satisfaction of Gifted and Average Adolescents in Hong Kong: Validation of the Chinese Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS)

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Abstract

Despite the popularity of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS) for use in research, this instrument has not yet been validated with adolescents of different intellectual ability levels and across different cultures. This study examined the psychometric properties and measurement equivalence of BMSLSS with a sample of 676 Chinese adolescents who are deemed ‘gifted’ and attending the Hong Kong Academy of Gifted Education, and 702 students with average achievement in mainstream high schools. Results indicated high internal consistency for the scale and a one-factor solution for BMSLSS with this population. Tests of configural, full metric and partial scalar invariance suggest that gifted students attending an academy conceptualize life satisfaction in a same way as their average attainment peers in regular schools. The findings support the applicability and measurement equivalence of BMSLSS for use with Chinese gifted and average-ability students.

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Acknowledgements

The gifted students’ data reported in this article is from the collaborative research “The Life Skills and Career Development Project” of the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education and The University of Hong Kong Centre for Advancement in Inclusive and Special Education. The average students’ data reported is from a project partly funded by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (HKU 756312). We are grateful for the generous support of the participating students, their parents and school teachers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Lue Fang

  2. Centre for Advancement in Inclusive and Special Education, Faculty of Education, Laboratory and Program for Creativity and Talent Development, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR, China

    Mantak Yuen, Serene Chan & Florence Wu

  3. Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education, Sha Tin, Hong Kong, China

    Eric Fung

  4. Centre for Research on College-Work Force Transitions, Wisconsin Center for Educational Research, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Jiahong Zhang

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  1. Lue Fang
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  2. Mantak Yuen
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  3. Eric Fung
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  4. Jiahong Zhang
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  5. Serene Chan
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  6. Florence Wu
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Correspondence to Lue Fang or Mantak Yuen.

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Fang, L., Yuen, M., Fung, E. et al. Life Satisfaction of Gifted and Average Adolescents in Hong Kong: Validation of the Chinese Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS). Applied Research Quality Life 17, 751–761 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-021-09932-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-021-09932-8

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