Psychometric Characteristics of the Korean Mental Health Continuum–Short Form in an Adolescent Sample

Abstract

There have been few research studies to examine the positive mental health of Asian adolescents. The aim here is to examine the factorial structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent/discriminant validity of a Korean version of the Mental Health Continuum–short form (K-MHC-SF), a newly developed self-report scale for positive mental health assessment, in a sample of South Korean adolescents. The Korean sample comprised 547 high school students (57% were female), ranging in age from 14 to 17 years (mean age = 16.08 years, SD = 0.34). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the K-MHC-SF replicated the three-factor structure of emotional, psychological, and social well-being found in earlier studies. Another confirmatory factor analysis supported the correlated two-factor model of mental health and mental disorder. The internal consistency of the overall K-MHC-SF was .91. The total score on the K-MHC-SF significantly correlated with a measure of life satisfaction (ρ = .58) and a measure of self-esteem (ρ = .57). In addition, the attempt at categorical classification revealed that 11.7% were in the category of positive mental health, characterized as flourishing, and 13.0% were in the category of absence of positive mental health, described as languishing. The results of the present study suggest that the K-MHC-SF is a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring the three lower-order dimensions of subjective well-being.

Validation of the Mental Health Continuum‐Short Form and the dual continua model of well‐being and psychopathology in an adult mental health setting

“…Studies in the general population have shown that the MHC‐SF is a reliable and valid instrument to comprehensively measure emotional, psychological, and social well‐being (De Carvalho et al., ; Hides et al., ; Joshanloo, ; Joshanloo et al., ; Karaś et al., ; Keyes et al., ; Lamers et al., ; Lim, ; Perugini et al., ; Petrillo et al., ; Robitscheck & Keyes, ; Salama‐Younes, & Ismaïl, ). Furthermore, studies in the general population have provided evidence for the dual continua model of well‐being and psychopathology (Gilmour, ; Keyes, ; ; ; Keyes et al., ; Keyes et al., ; Lamers et al., ; Lamers, Westerhof, Bohlmeijer, & Keyes, ; Perugini et al., ; Petrillo et al., ; Renshaw & Cohen, ; Westerhof & Keyes, , ).…”

“…They answered questions like “During the past month, how often did you feel: happy (emotional well‐being); confident to think or express your own ideas and opinions (psychological well‐being); that you had something important to contribute to society (social well‐being). The MHC‐SF has good psychometric qualities in the general population (De Carvalho et al., ; Hides et al., ; Joshanloo, ; Joshanloo, Wissing, Khumalo, & Lamers, ; Karaś et al., ; Keyes et al., ; Lamers et al., ; Lim, ; Perugini et al., ; Petrillo et al., ; Salama‐Younes & Ismaïl, ). The psychometric properties of the MHC‐SF in the psychiatric population will be examined in the present study.…”

“…As there were no other instruments measuring all three dimensions of well‐being, Keyes () developed the Mental Health Continuum‐Short Form (MHC‐SF) as a short instrument to measure the three facets of emotional well‐being and the 11 facets of psychological and social well‐being. Its three‐factor structure, reliability, and construct validity have been established in nonclinical samples across various countries and cultures, including the United States (Robitscheck & Keyes, ), South Africa (Keyes et al., ), the Netherlands (Lamers, Westerhof, Bohlmeijer, Ten Klooster, & Keyes, ), France (Salama‐Younes & Ismaïl, ), Korea (Lim, ), Poland (Karaś, Cieciuch, & Keyes, ), Italy (Petrillo, Capone, Caso, & Keyes, ), Portugal (De Carvalho, Pereira, & Pinto, ), Iran (Joshanloo, ), and Argentina (Perugini, De la Iglesia, Solano, & Keyes, ). Recently, in Australian (Hides et al., ) and South African samples (de Bruin & Du Plessis, ), the presence of a general factor of well‐being was suggested by mentioning evidence for a bifactor model.…”

Flourishing

“…Flourishing mental health is the highest level of emotional, psychological, and social well-being. The Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF) appears to have cross-cultural utility (Joshanloo et al 2013; Keyes et al 2008; Lim 2013). …”

No Evidence for Differential Relations of Hedonic Well-Being and Eudaimonic Well-Being to Gene Expression: A Comment on Statistical Problems in Fredrickson et al. ()

“…The MHC-SF consists of 14 items assessing emotional well-being (three items), social well-being (five items), and psychological well-being (six items) on a six-point scale and is an abbreviated version of the original longer instrument ("Mental Health Continuum-Long Form," Keyes, 2008, available from http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780123745170). The non-orthogonal three-factor structure underlying both the long form and the short form of this instrument has been validated repeatedly (e.g., Gallagher, Lopez, & Preacher, 2009;Jaotombo, 2014;Joshanloo, Rostami, & Nosratabadi, 2006;Joshanloo, Wissing, Khumalo, & Lamers, 2013;Karaś, Cieciuch, & Keyes, 2014;Keyes, 2005Keyes, , 2009bKeyes et al, 2008;Lamers, Westerhof, Bohlmeijer, ten Klooster, & Keyes, 2011;Lim, 2014;Petrillo, Capone, Caso, & Keyes, 2015;Robitschek & Keyes, 2009;Salama-Younes, 2011a,b;Salama-Younes & Ismaïl, 2011). Emotional well-being reflects the traditional philosophical concept of hedonia; psychological well-being and social well-being reflect two different aspects of the traditional philosophical concept of eudaimonia.…”