[Development of a Japanese Version of the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), and Examination of Its Validity and Reliability]

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to develop a Japanese version of the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) and to examine its validity and reliability.

Methods: The four items of the English SHS were translated into Japanese. These Japanese items were back-translated into English, and verified by one of the developers of the original SHS. The participants were 364 Japanese undergraduate students (158 males and 206 females). They were asked to answer the questionnaire including the Japanese SHS, five items concerning positive health and self-esteem, and the Japanese General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The stability of the Japanese SHS was examined over a five-week time period.

Results: It was shown that the Japanese SHS was highly internal consistent with alphas of .80 for males and .84 for females. As for the test-rest reliability, a high correlation (r = .86) was found after five-week. One factor structure and factor loadings emerged clearly from factor analysis. The scores of the Japanese SHS correlated positively with positive health and self-esteem. Furthermore, they were significantly greater in the healthy group than in the unhealthy one, from the GHQ scores, especially for depression.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that the Japanese version of SHS has internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity.