Subjective well-being (SWB) is a multidimensional construct with three components (i.e., life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) comprising the tripartite model. Yet, despite numerous studies in the field of SWB, the cross-cultural validity of the tripartite structure is still largely unknown. The present study evaluated competing models of SWB’s structure across 16 countries (N = 8860 undergraduate students; age range = 18–29 years; 63.6% female) and examined its measurement invariance using both exact and approximate approaches. The exploratory structural equation model (ESEM) of tripartite SWB that allowed small cross-loadings provided the best fit to the data in the majority of countries, and it demonstrated a high level of approximate invariance, which allows for a comparison of means across countries. A bifactor model with an omitted Positive Affect factor also fit well in all samples making the measurement of the general SWB possible; however, it was less robust for cross-cultural comparisons. The correlations between the three latent SWB factors were consistent across most countries, with a few meaningful exceptions. We conclude that ESEM model represents the tripartite structure of SWB robustly both within and across countries.

主观幸福感（SWB）是一个多维结构，由三个组成部分（即生活满意度、积极情感和消极情感）构成三方模型。然而，尽管在主观幸福感领域进行了大量研究，但三方结构的跨文化有效性仍然很大程度上未知。本研究评估了 16 个国家 SWB 结构的竞争模型（ N = 8860 名本科生；年龄范围 = 18-29 岁；63.6% 为女性），并使用精确和近似方法检验了其测量不变性。允许小交叉加载的三方 SWB 探索性结构方程模型 (ESEM) 为大多数国家的数据提供了最佳拟合，并且表现出高度的近似不变性，从而可以对各国的均值进行比较。省略了正向影响因子的双因子模型也能很好地拟合所有样本，从而使一般幸福感的测量成为可能；然而，它对于跨文化比较来说不太稳健。在大多数国家中，三个潜在的幸福感因素之间的相关性是一致的，但有一些有意义的例外。我们得出的结论是，ESEM 模型在国家内部和国家之间都强有力地代表了 SWB 的三方结构。