Stevens, M. J., Constantinescu, P-M., & Lambru, I. (2006, July). Romanian translation of the Satisfaction With Life Scale. Paper presented at the International Congress of Applied Psychology, Athens, Greece. ROMANIAN TRANSLATION OF THE SATISFACTION WITH LIFE SCALE Michael J. Stevens Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, USA Petru-Madalin Constantinescu and Iuliana Lambru The ”Lucian Blaga” Univesity, Sibiu, Romania We translated the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Pavot & Diener, 2000) into Romanian. The SLS has become a popular instrument for assessing well being. It measures an individual’s evaluation of satisfaction with life as compared to a subjectively determined ideal. The biopsychosocial model of mental health and illness (Schwarzer & Gutiérrez-Doña 2000) places increasing relevance on the construct of satisfaction with life, with mental health conceived not only as the absence of dysfunction, but also as the presence of subjective well being. Conversely, mental illness may be construed not only as the presence of dysfunction, but also as the absence of subjective well being. The translation methodology used in our study has follows International Test Commission standards (Bartrum, 2000) and other important guidelines for the translation and cross-cultural use of psychological tests (Hambleton &.Patsula, 1999). Method Participants The bilingual students who participated in the translation and adaptation of the SWLS were Romanian university volunteers with proficiency in English: 26 students majoring in Modern English and 7 students majoring in Informatics who had been recommended by their English professor because of their ability to comprehend the language in written form. The decision to choose students majoring in informatics was made to increase the heterogeneity of the sample. Five students did not return for the second testing and one student did not complete SWLS. The final bilingual group contained 18 students with the following demographic characteristics: 18- 23 years old, 22% male and 88% female, and 56% majoring in English and 44% majoring in Informatics. Measures The SWLS is a 5-item scale that measures life satisfaction, an outcome of respondents’ cognitive reflection about their personal level of satisfaction with life. Students were asked to rate, using a 7-point Likert scale, the degree to which they agreed with each item. The reliability and 1 1