Well-being in a deeply religious society in the shadows of war: results of a household survey of Kuwaitis.

The present study was designed to determine the current level and distribution of well-being among Kuwaiti citizens who have lived either in the middle or in the shadows of war since Kuwait was invaded by Iraq in August 1990. A measure of Kuwaiti well-being, the Kuwaiti Raha Scale, was developed and utilized as the primary indicator in the first National Household Survey (NHS) of well-being in Kuwait. The findings presented are part of an international program of research focusing on national trauma and mental health for which the Kuwaiti NHS was developed. From a population of 935,922 (2004), 830 households were randomly drawn, from which 487 were approached and 416 successfully recruited and surveyed. In contrast to prevailing views in the literature, level of well-being (Raha) was not associated with either educational attainment or wealth. Rather, the results indicate that well-being is more associated with health and religion. Implications of these findings for a new theory of well-being in a deeply religious society are offered along with suggestions for a program of research. The policy implications of the NHS are also discussed.

Measuring mental health following traumatization: psychometric analysis of the Kuwait Raha Scale using a random national household data set.

The authors report on the psychometric properties of the Kuwait Raha Scale (KRS), a measure developed to assess well-being among Kuwaitis. Specific aims of the study were to (a) evaluate competing models of the latent structure of the KRS using exploratory factor analysis and identify the best model, (b) compare the model developed from a nationally representative sample with the initial model reported with Kuwaiti undergraduate students, and (c) assess the discriminant validity of the KRS with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Factor analysis suggested that a 5-factor model best suited the data, whereas the development of the KRS indicated a 4-factor model. Differences in the latent structure found between the current study and the original examination of the KRS factor structure may be attributed to the demographics of the samples used in the 2 studies. Whereas the earlier study used a sample of undergraduate college students, the current study acquired a nationally representative sample of the Kuwaiti population. Discriminant validity of the KRS with the GHQ indicated that the KRS and the GHQ measure different dimensions of health. Implications for theory and research are discussed, with particular attention to overcoming the challenges confronting the meaning and measurement of well-being in developing countries and stimulating interdisciplinary research.