Development and Validation of a Happiness Motives Scale for Children

The literature of well-being has identified three essential motives for reaching happiness (i.e., happiness motives) –hedonic, eudaimonic, and extrinsic motives, but most of the studies have been conducted on adults and adolescents. It overlooks that these motives may also influence school-aged children’s well-being experience and outcomes. However, there is a lack of age-appropriate scale to reliably measure these three motives. Thus, we developed and validated the Scale of Hedonic, Eudaimonic and Extrinsic Motives for Activities-Child Version (HEEMA-C). First, we generated 18 items based on the conception of hedonic, eudaimonic, and extrinsic motives and existing scales and these items were meticulously reviewed and modified by seven experts (including four primary school teachers and three psychologists). We then conducted three studies to validate the Scale. In Study 1 (N = 1,031 students), exploratory factor analysis (EFA) yielded a three dimensional scale consisting of 15 items, which was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results also demonstrated that the instrument had acceptable reliability. In Study 2, a two-wave longitudinal measurement invariance analysis was conducted, and the scale demonstrated its stability and consistency over time. In Study 3, we tested the convergent, discriminant and predictive validity of the Scale. Consistent with the conceptualization, eudaimonic (vs. hedonic and extrinsic) motives were significantly stronger related to autonomy. Eudaimonic (vs. hedonic) motives had stronger correlations with well being beliefs in self-development, while extrinsic (vs. hedonic and eudaimonic) motives had weaker correlations with well-being beliefs in self-development, experience of pleasure and avoidance of negative experience. Eudaimonic (vs. hedonic) motives had stronger correlations with psychological well-being, but hedonic and eudaimonic (but not extrinsic) motives had positive correlations with emotional and social well-being. Overall, the HEEMA-C scale is a reliable and valid assessment tool, which will be conducive to more in-depth research on school-aged children's happiness motives.