Abstract
The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF; Keyes 2005a) is a 14-item questionnaire designed to measure three components of positive mental health: emotional well-being (EWB), social well-being (SWB), and psychological well-being (PWB). Previous studies have proposed various models of mental health using the MHC-SF: a single-factor model, a correlated two-factor model, a correlated three-factor model (EWB, SWB, and PWB), and a bifactor model with three specific dimensions and a general factor, as well as the use of Exploratory Structural Equation Modelling (ESEM) to examine model structure. The present study assessed the suitability of multiple models using confirmatory factor analysis and ESEM in a large Canadian sample (N = 43,020), taken from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS; Statistics Canada 2012a). The bifactor ESEM model had the best fit. Measurement invariance testing revealed that the bifactor ESEM model showed strict invariance across gender and ethnic minority status, and weak invariance across four age groupings.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2009). Exploratory structural equation modeling. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 16(3), 397–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510903008204.
Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2010). Computing the strictly positive Satorra-Bentler chi-square test in Mplus. Mplus Web Notes, 12. Retrieved from: http://www.statmodel.com/examples/webnotes/webnote12.pdf.
Bradburn, N. M. (1969). The structure of psychological well-being [monograph]. National Opinion Research, Retrieved from: http://www.norc.org/PDFs/publications/BradburnN_Struc_Psych_Well_Being.pdf
Byrne, B. M., & Stewart, S. M. (2006). Teacher's corner: The MACS approach to testing for multigroup invariance of a second-order structure: A walk through the process. Structural Equation Modeling, 13(2), 287–321. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1302_7.
Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 14(3), 464–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834.
Chen, F. F., Sousa, K. H., & West, S. G. (2005). Teacher's corner: Testing measurement invariance of second-order factor models. Structural Equation Modeling, 12(3), 471–492. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1203_7.
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233–255. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5.
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155.
de Bruin, G. P., & du Plessis, G. A. (2015). Bifactor analysis of the mental health continuum—Short form (MHC—SF). Psychological Reports, 116(2), 438–446. https://doi.org/10.2466/03.02.PR0.116k20w6.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.uwindsor.ca/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13
Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Biswas-Diener, R., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D. W., & Oishi, S. (2009). New measures of well-being. In E. Diener (Ed.), Assessing well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener (pp. 247–266). Dordrecht: Springer.
Disabato, D. J., Goodman, F. R., Kashdan, T. B., Short, J. L., & Jarden, A. (2016). Different types of well-being? A cross-cultural examination of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Psychological Assessment, 28(5), 471–482. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000209.
Echeverría, G., Torres, M., Pedrals, N., Padilla, O., Rigotti, A., & Bitran, M. (2017). Validation of a Spanish version of the mental health continuum-short form questionnaire. Psicothema, 29(1), 96–102. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothem2016.3.
Finifter, B. M. (1972). The generation of confidence: Evaluating research findings by random subsample replication. Sociological Methodology, 4, 112–175. https://doi.org/10.2307/270731.
Gallagher, M. W., Lopez, S. J., & Preacher, K. J. (2009). The hierarchical structure of well-being. Journal of Personality, 77(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00573.x.
Graham, C., & Chattopadhyay, S. (2013). Gender and well-being around the world. International Journal of Happiness and Development, 1(2), 212–232. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJHD.2013.055648.
Guo, C., Tomson, G., Guo, J., Li, X., Keller, C., & Söderqvist, F. (2015). Psychometric evaluation of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) in Chinese adolescents–a methodological study. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 13(198), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-015-0394-2.
Hides, L., Quinn, C., Stoyanov, S., Cockshaw, W., Mitchell, T., & Kavanagh, D. J. (2016). Is the mental wellbeing of young Australians best represented by a single, multidimensional or bifactor model? Psychiatry Research, 241, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.04.077.
Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118.
Hubka, D., & Lakaski, C. (2013). Developing research and surveillance for positive mental health: A Canadian process for conceptualization. International Journal of Mental Health Addiction, 11, 658–671. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-013-9443-4.
Huta, V., & Ryan, R. M. (2010). Pursuing pleasure or virtue: The differential and overlapping well-being benefits of hedonic and eudaimonic motives. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11(6), 735–762. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-009-9171-4.
IBM Corp. (2011). IBM SPSS statistics for windows, version 20.0. Armonk: IBM Corp.
Joshanloo, M., & Lamers, S. M. (2016). Reinvestigation of the factor structure of the MHC-SF in the Netherlands: Contributions of exploratory structural equation modeling. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 8–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.02.089.
Joshanloo, M., Wissing, M. P., Khumalo, I. P., & Lamers, S. M. A. (2013). Measurement invariance of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) across three cultural groups. Personality and Individual Differences, 55, 755–759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.06.002.
Jovanović, V. (2015). Structural validity of the mental health continuum-short form: The bifactor model of emotional, social and psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, 154–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.11.026.
Karaś, D., Cieciuch, J., & Keyes, C. L. M. (2014). The polish adaptation of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF). Personality and Individual Differences, 69, 104–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.05.011.
Keyes, C. L. M. (1998). Social well-being. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61(2), 121–140. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2787065.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Research, 43, 207–222. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3090197.
Keyes, C. L. (2005a). The subjective well-being of America's youth: Toward a comprehensive assessment. Adolescent & Family Health, 4(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.73.3.539.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2005b). Mental illness and/or mental health? Investigating axioms of the complete state model of health. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(3), 539–548. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.73.3.539.
Keyes, C. L. (2007). Promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing: A complementary strategy for improving national mental health. American Psychologist, 62(2), 95–108. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.2.95.
Keyes, C. L., & Westerhof, G. J. (2012). Chronological and subjective age differences in flourishing mental health and major depressive episode. Aging & Mental Health, 16(1), 67–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2011.596811.
Keyes, C. L. M., Wissing, M., Potgieter, J. P., Temane, M., Kruger, A., & Rooy, S. (2008). Evaluation of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) in Setswana-speaking south Africans. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 15, 181–192. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.572.
Lamers, S. M. A., Glas, C. A. W., Westerhof, G. J., & Bohlmeijer, E. T. (2012). Longitudinal evaluation of the mental health continuum short form (MHC-SF); measurement invariance across demographics, physical illness, and mental illness. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 28(4), 290–296. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000109.
Lamers, S. M. A., Westerhof, G. J., Bohlmeijer, E. T., Klooster, P. M., & Keyes, C. L. M. (2011). Evaluating the psychometric properties of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF). Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67(1), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20741.
Lei, M., & Lomax, R. G. (2005). The effect of varying degrees of nonnormality in structural equation modeling. Structural Equation Modeling, 12(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1201_1.
Longo, Y., Jovanović, V., Sampaio, D. C. J., & Karaś, D. (2017). The general factor of well-being: Multinational evidence using bifactor ESEM on the mental health continuum-short form. Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191117748394.
Machado, W. L., & Bandeira, D. R. (2015). Positive mental health scale: Validation of the mental health continuum - short form. Universidade de São Francisco, Programa de Pós-Graduação Stricto Sensu em Psicologia, 20(2), 259–274. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-82712015200207.
McDonald, R. P. (1970). The theoretical foundations of principal factor analysis, canonical factor analysis, and alpha factor analysis. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 23(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1970.tb00432.x.
Menezes, N. M., Georgiades, K., & Boyle, M. H. (2011). The influence of immigrant status and concentration on psychiatric disorder in Canada: A multi-level analysis. Psychological Medicine, 41(10), 2221–2231. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291711000213.
Meredith, W. (1993). Measurement invariance, factor analysis and factorial invariance. Psychometrika, 58(4), 525–543. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02294825.
Marsh, H. W., Morin, A. J., Parker, P. D., & Kaur, G. (2014). Exploratory structural equation modeling: An integration of the best features of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 10, 85–110. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032813-153700.
Muthén, L. K. & B. O. Muthén. (1998-2015). Mplus (Version 7). Los Angeles: Muthén and Muthén.
Peter, T., Roberts, L. W., & Dengate, J. (2011). Flourishing in life: An empirical test of the dual continua model of mental health and mental illness among Canadian university students. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 13(1), 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623730.2011.9715646.
Perreira, T. A., Morin, A. J., Hebert, M., Gillet, N., Houle, S. A., & Berta, W. (2018). The short form of the workplace affective commitment multidimensional questionnaire (WACMQ-S): A bifactor-ESEM approach among healthcare professionals. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 106, 62–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.12.004.
Petrillo, G., Capone, V., Caso, D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (2015). The mental health continuum - short form (MHC-SF) as a measure of well-being in the Italian context. Social Indicators Research, 121, 291–312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0629-3.
Piedmont, R. L. (2014). Inter-item correlations. In A. C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research (pp. 3303–3304). Dorerecht: Springer.
Public Health Agency of Canada, Ministry of Health. (2014a). Economic burden of illness in Canada (Publication No. 130148). Retrieved from: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/ebic-femc/2005-2008/assets/pdf/ebic-femc-2005-2008-eng.pdf.
Public Health Agency of Canada, Ministry of Health. (2014b). Promoting mental health means promoting the best of ourselves. Retrieved from: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/mh-sm/mhp-psm/index-eng.php.
Rosseel, Y. (2012). Lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48(2), 1–36. Retrieved from: http://www.jstatsoft.org/v48/i02/.
RStudio (2015). RStudio: Integrated development for R (version 1.0.136) [computer software]. Boston. Retrieved from: http://www.rstudio.com/.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141–166. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069–1081. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069.
Ryff, C. D., Keyes, C. L., & Hughes, D. L. (2003). Status inequalities, perceived discrimination, and eudaimonic well-being: Do the challenges of minority life hone purpose and growth? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44(3), 275–291. https://doi.org/10.2307/1519779.
Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. H. (2008). Know thyself and become what you are: A eudaimonic approach to psychological well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(1), 13–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-006-9019-0.
Satorra, A., & Bentler, P. M. (2010). Ensuring positiveness of the scaled difference chi-square test statistic. Psychometrika, 75(2), 243–248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-009-9135-y.
Schutte, L., & Wissing, M. P. (2017). Clarifying the factor structure of the mental health continuum short form in three languages: A bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling approach. Society and Mental Health, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156869317707793.
Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist., 55(1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066X.55.1.5.
Statistics Canada. (2012a). Canadian Community Health Survey, 2012 [Data File]. Available from: http://odesi1.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.uwindsor.ca/webview/.
Statistics Canada. (2012b). Canadian Community Health Survey – Annual Component (CCHS) [extraneous documents] Retrieved from: http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3226.
Steinmetz, H. (2013). Analyzing observed composite differences across groups: Is partial measurement invariance enough? Methodology: European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 9(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-2241/a000049.
Thompson, M. S., & Green, S. B. (2006). Evaluating between-group differences in latent variable means. In G. Hancock & R. Mueller (Eds.), Structural equation modeling: A second course (pp. 119–169). Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Tiwari, S. K., & Wang, J. (2008). Ethnic differences in mental health service use among white, Chinese, south Asian and south east Asian populations living in Canada. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 43(11), 866. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-008-0373-6.
Vittersø, J., & Søholt, Y. (2011). Life satisfaction goes with pleasure and personal growth goes with interest: Further arguments for separating hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 6(4), 326–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2011.584548.
Waterman, A. S. (1993). Two conceptions of happiness: Contrasts of personal expressiveness (eudiamonia) and hedonic enjoyment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(4), 678–691. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.64.4.678.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.54.6.1063.
Westerhof, G. L., & Keyes, C. L. M. (2010). Mental illness and mental health: The two continua model across the lifespan. Journal of Adult Development, 17(2), 110–119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-009-9082-y.
You, S., Furlong, M., Felix, E., & O'Malley, M. (2015). Validation of the social and emotional health survey for five sociocultural groups: Multigroup invariance and latent mean analyses. Psychology in the Schools, 52(4), 349–362. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.21828.
Yuan, K. H., & Bentler, P. M. (2000). Three likelihood-based methods for mean and covariance structure analysis with nonnormal missing data. Sociological Methodology, 30(1), 165–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/0081-1750.00078.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest. For this type of study formal consent is not required. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Electronic Supplementary Material
ESM 1
(DOCX 50 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lamborn, P., Cramer, K.M. & Riberdy, A. The Structural Validity and Measurement Invariance of the Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (MHC-SF) in a Large Canadian Sample. J well-being assess 2, 1–19 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41543-018-0007-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41543-018-0007-z