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Validation of a Brief Yesterday Measure of Hedonic Well-Being and Daily Activities: Comparison with the Day Reconstruction Method

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  • Christopher Christodoulou
  • Stefan Schneider
  • Arthur Stone

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in the measurement of hedonic well-being (HWB), due in part to its broad implications in areas such as health and society. The day reconstruction method (DRM) is a validated technique assessing HWB and daily activities using instructions that help respondents recover their experiences from the previous day, thus reducing recall bias. Unfortunately, large-scale surveys are typically not able to implement the time-consuming DRM procedure; instead, they rely on single-item or very brief questionnaire assessment of HWB and time usage. Despite their wide use, brief questionnaires have rarely been compared to the DRM, which could provide validation of these short assessments. In the present study we compared these two questionnaire formats in 45 adults who completed both a DRM and a “hybrid” short form (HSF) questionnaire that included a very brief procedure to reconstruct yesterday’s events. Results were that the mean HSF ratings tended to overestimate HWB in comparison to the DRM, though effects were generally small to moderate. With regard to estimates of time spent on daily activities, the HSF also differed from the DRM, though with generally small to moderate effects. Correlations between estimates indicated that the HSF explained an average of almost half the variance in the DRM ratings for both HWB (rs ranging from .52 to .97) and time use (rs ranging from .43 to .85). In general, HSF ratings displayed considerable overlap with those of the DRM though the brief instructions apparently did not eliminate recall bias in the shorter questionnaire. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Christodoulou & Stefan Schneider & Arthur Stone, 2014. "Validation of a Brief Yesterday Measure of Hedonic Well-Being and Daily Activities: Comparison with the Day Reconstruction Method," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 907-917, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:115:y:2014:i:3:p:907-917
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-013-0240-z
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    2. Paul Dolan & Laura Kudrna & Arthur Stone, 2017. "The Measure Matters: An Investigation of Evaluative and Experience-Based Measures of Wellbeing in Time Use Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 57-73, October.
    3. Orla Doyle & Liam Delaney & Christine O'Farrelly & Nick Fitzpatrick & Michael Daly, 2015. "Can Early Intervention Improve Maternal Well-being? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial," Working Papers 2015-015, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    4. Arthur A. Stone & Stefan Schneider & Alan Krueger & Joseph E. Schwartz & Angus Deaton, 2018. "Experiential Wellbeing Data from the American Time Use Survey: Comparisons with Other Methods and Analytic Illustrations with Age and Income," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 359-378, February.

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