The mental health continuum‐short form: The structure and application for cross‐cultural studies–A 38 nation study

TLDR

The Mental Health Continuum‑Short Form (MHC‑SF) is a brief scale that measures positive human functioning, but further studies on general populations are needed. The study aimed to examine the factor structure and cross‑cultural utility of the MHC‑SF using bifactor models and exploratory structural equation modelling. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, the authors tested measurement invariance of the MHC‑SF across 38 countries with 8,066 university students. MGCFA confirmed a cross‑culturally invariant bifactor structure with a dominant general factor (ECV = .66), allowing comparison of correlates across 38 student samples, though scalar invariance was absent, limiting cross‑country level comparisons.

Abstract

Abstract Objective The Mental Health Continuum‐Short Form (MHC‐SF) is a brief scale measuring positive human functioning. The study aimed to examine the factor structure and to explore the cross‐cultural utility of the MHC‐SF using bifactor models and exploratory structural equation modelling. Method Using multigroup confirmatory analysis (MGCFA) we examined the measurement invariance of the MHC‐SF in 38 countries (university students, N = 8,066; 61.73% women, mean age 21.55 years). Results MGCFA supported the cross‐cultural replicability of a bifactor structure and a metric level of invariance between student samples. The average proportion of variance explained by the general factor was high (ECV = .66), suggesting that the three aspects of mental health (emotional, social, and psychological well‐being) can be treated as a single dimension of well‐being. Conclusion The metric level of invariance offers the possibility of comparing correlates and predictors of positive mental functioning across countries; however, the comparison of the levels of mental health across countries is not possible due to lack of scalar invariance. Our study has preliminary character and could serve as an initial assessment of the structure of the MHC‐SF across different cultural settings. Further studies on general populations are required for extending our findings.