The application of the eight-item Oxford Happiness Questionnaire has rarely been investigated cross-culturally. This study examined the psychometric properties and use of the eight-item Oxford Happiness Questionnaire in Taiwan, using a national birth cohort dataset of 12 year olds as a sample. The dataset of 12-year-old children in the Taiwan Birth Cohort Pilot Study, which included 17,694 adolescents, was used for this study. The eight-item Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was double-translated into Mandarin Chinese. Item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling for construct validity were conducted. The four-point Likert scale for the eight-item Chinese Oxford Happiness Questionnaire showed good inter-item correlation. Having deleted the item "mentally alert", the remaining seven items were separated into two dimensions of social adaptation status (SAS) and psychological well-being (PWB), resulting in Cronbach's alpha scores of 0.63 and 0.55, respectively. The two dimensions showed good construct validity. The differences in the language and cultural connotations of being "mentally alert" are discussed. Furthermore, being of a collective culture, the two dimensions of SAS and PWB were found in Chinese adolescents, allowing distinction between social- and individual-oriented happiness. Our study showed that the seven-item Oxford Happiness Questionnaire has a scale that is easy to use and comprehend, with good psychometric properties for use with Chinese adolescents.
Keywords: Oxford Happiness Questionnaire; Psychometric properties; Taiwan Birth Cohort Study.