Satisfaction with Life Scale among adolescents and young adults in Portugal: extending evidence of construct validity

The paper presents three empirical studies designed to extend the test of the construct validity of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) among Portuguese students. In the first study, the responses of 461 elementary and secondary education students were submitted to a principal component analysis. A solution of one single factor was chosen, accounting for 55.7 % of the total variance, with Cronbach alpha coefficient and inter-item correlation above .70 and .20, respectively. The second study used a sample of 317 undergraduate students and registered a similar factor solution for SWLS (/pq = 0.99), which accounted for 65.6 % of the total variance (Cronbach alpha .89 and inter-item correlation above .20). A test–retest analysis registered coefficients of .70 (T2) and .77 (T3) and no significant statistically differences between T2, T3 and T1. The third study used a sample of 107 foster care youths from elementary and secondary education. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicate adequate fit indexes for the one-factor solution (v2/df = 2.70, GFI = .96, CFI = .96), which showed convergent validity, reliability and homogeneity. In conclusion, there is psychometric evidence for the one-factor structure of the SWLS in Portugal.FCTCOMPET

Comparison of electrode site preparation techniques

A posttest-only control group design was used to study the effects of two electrode site preparation techniques on reducing electrical potential across a pair of disposable skin electrodes. Sixty healthy volunteers were randomly divided into one control and two treatment groups of 20 subjects each. Within each group, the treatment was further assigned randomly to either the right or left forearm. Analysis of variance and paired t test analyses were used to compare group differences. Skin preparation by using One Step Skin Prep significantly decreased skin potentials (-1.90 mV) whereas the group in which ECG Prep Pads were used and the control group had no significant change