Positive Mental Health Scale: Validation of the <italic>Mental Health Continuum - Short Form</italic>

Abstract

&lt;p&gt;The &lt;italic&gt;Mental Health Continuum - Short Form&lt;/italic&gt; (MHC-SF) is a self-reporting instrument for assessing positive mental health, which is understood as symptoms of positive affection, self-development and social connectivity. The present article describes the adaptation and validation of the MHC-SF for the Brazilian Portuguese language in a sample of 686 adults, which included 72.7% female participants and had an average age of 33.9 (&lt;italic&gt;SD&lt;/italic&gt;= 11.30) years. The various methods employed to assess the MHC-SF psychometric properties (principal component analysis, factor analysis, Item Response Theory and network analysis) indicated that a unidimensional structure is sufficient to represent the structure of the instrument and its high reliability. In addition, the results showed that the individual-centered aspects of mental health are more easily manifested relative to the social-oriented aspects. The Brazilian version of the MHC-SF is a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of positive mental health.&lt;/p&gt;

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“…No intermédio, o diagnóstico de saúde mental moderada é atribuído quando se pontua com 3 pontos (cerca de uma ou duas vezes por semana) ou 4 pontos (cerca de duas ou três vezes por semana) em, pelo menos, um dos três itens de bem-estar emocional e em, pelo menos, seis dos onze itens de bem-estar psicológico e social (Keyes, 2007). A versão reduzida da MHC-SF tem revelado excelente consistência interna e validade para diferentes populações e culturas (Ismaïl & Salama-Younes, 2011;Jovanovic, 2015;Karas, Cieciuch, & Keyes, 2014;Lamers et al, 2011;Machado & Bandeira, 2015;Matos et al, 2010;Monte et al, 2015), assim como sensibilidade e estabilidade a alterações temporais (Lamers et al, 2011). Para a amostra em estudo, a sensibilidade da escala ficou assegurada após a análise das frequências de todos os itens (todas as categorias de resposta aos itens foram utilizadas como respostas); o cálculo do valor de Alfa de Cronbach para os 14 itens da escala revelou uma boa consistência interna para os participantes da amostra (a = .92), assim como para as subescalas, bem-estar emocional (a = .91), bem-estar psicológico (a = .91) e bem-estar social (a = .85).…”

Convergent and criterion-related validity for a brief scale of the Five-Factor model

“…Keyes (2002;2007) has subdivided the concept of wellbeing into emotional (or subjective) well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being. In order to evaluate these three Positive Mental Health factors in adults, Keyes (2002) Machado and Bandeira (2015).…”

“…The concept of well-being refers to "the capacity of the individual to fully dispose of their skills and abilities to meet their needs, personal and interpersonal goals and values" (Machado & Bandeira, 2015). Therefore, the evaluation of Positive Mental Health reasonably correlates with the ways of being, thinking, and feeling, which are considered intrinsic components to characterize human personality (Keys, 2007;Machado & Bandeira, 2012).…”

“…Positiva -ESMP, adapted for Brazilian culture by Machado & Bandeira, 2015). A 14-item scale divided into three subscales, which measures subjective well-being (three items), psychological wellbeing (six items), and social well-being (five items).…”

Assessment of the Mental Health Continuum in a Sample of Argentinean Adults

“…To date, two previous studies in Latin America countries have examined the psychometric properties of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF), in Argentina and in Brazil (Lupano Perugini, De la Iglesia, Castro Solano, & Keyes, 2016;Machado & Bandeira, 2015). Both studies have shown good evidence of validity and reliability of the instrument in adult populations; however, none have investigated the prevalence of the mental health continuum state and the dual-continua model classification in a sample of Latin American adult population.…”