Reconsidering the structure of the questionnaire for eudaimonic well-being using wide age-range Japanese adult sample: An exploratory analysis

Background An increasing amount of research is now highlighting the importance of approaching issues of happiness through eudaimonic well-being. However, the literature does not conclusively show a full understanding of the construct of eudaimonic well-being, as previous studies primarily focused on younger samples from Western countries and only a few studies have attempted to explore its psychological construct through exploratory approaches. Therefore, we conducted a survey among a wide range of age groups in Japan to capture the psychological construct of eudaimonic well-being, through an exploratory analytic approach using Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Wellbeing (QEWB). Methods A total of 1126 Japanese participants (580 females, 546 males) were included for analysis. Participants were divided into three age groups according to their age, including 10s to 20s (18–29 years), 30s to 40s (30–49 years) and 50s to 60s (50–69 years). After narrowing down the total number of factors by exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), we conducted an ESEM and bifactor ESEM with oblique goemin and oblique bi-geomin rotations for choosing and assessing the final model based on the rotated results and its interpretability. Results The results of a parallel analysis and goodness-of-fit indices obtained by ESEM indicated that the QEWB consisted of three or more factors. Both a three-to-six factor and bifactor ESEM with oblique goemin rotation showed that three-factor structure for the 30s to 40s and 50s to 60s and four-factor structure for the 10s to 20s should be chosen, respectively. “Deep and Meaningful Engagement,” a factor only relevant to the 10s to 20s may be an expanded version of what original paper called the Intense Involvement in Activities, with more emphasis on the enthusiastic attitude one has towards activities. Conclusions The structure of eudaimonic well-being may differ across cultures and ages, thus requiring further investigation in the field.