Evaluation of the mental health continuum–short form (MHC–SF) in setswana‐speaking South Africans

Abstract

A continuous assessment and a categorical diagnosis of the presence of mental health, described as flourishing, and the absence of mental health, characterized as languishing, is applied to a random sample of 1050 Setswana-speaking adults in the Northwest province of South Africa. Factor analysis revealed that the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) replicated the three-factor structure of emotional, psychological and social well-being found in US samples. The internal reliability of the overall MHC-SF Scale was 0.74. The total score on the MHC-SF correlated 0.52 with a measure of positive affect, between 0.35 and 0.40 with measures of generalized self-efficacy and satisfaction with life, and between 0.30 and 0.35 with measures of coping strategies, sense of coherence, and community collective self-efficacy. The total score on the MHC-SF correlated -0.22 with the total score on the General Health Questionnaire. Criteria for the categorical diagnosis were applied, and findings revealed that 20% were flourishing, 67.8% were moderately mentally healthy, and 12.2% were languishing. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized two-continua model of mental health and mental illness found in the USA.

A critical reanalysis of the relationship between genomics and well-being

“…Examination of item content to devise labels for the factors led us to name the first factor "personal well-being" (PWB) and the second factor-comprised of those MHC-SF items that ask for the respondent's opinions about society, rather than personal introspection "evaluative perception of the social environment" (EPSE). Thus, our EFA findings show that, although it appears that the MHC-SF does seem to emulate a two-factor structure, the distribution of high item loadings across the factors does not conform to what Cole and Fredrickson (14) reported, nor to what other published studies have found (11,13).…”

“…According to Keyes (12), the MHC-SF assesses three forms of well-being: emotional well-being (items SF1-SF3), social well-being (items SF4-SF8), and psychological well-being (items SF9-SF14). This 3D structure has been confirmed in empirical studies (11,13). In an Appendix describing the technical details of the scoring of the MHC-SF, Keyes (12) applied the word "hedonic" to the first factor and "eudaimonic" (or "positive functioning") to the second and third, and indicated that a person's "flourishing" status depends on how many items from each of these two groups are experienced with a minimum specific frequency.…”

“…However, this split of the MHC-SF items into hedonic and eudaimonic categories appears to have been made principally to simplify the instructions for diagnosing persons as flourishing; we were not able to identify any published evidence supporting an underlying psychometric factor in which the previously empirically demonstrated emotional and social well-being factors combined into one. Indeed, we note that Keyes et al (11) referred to these groupings of hedonic and eudaimonic items as "clusters," an ostensibly neutral term that seems to deliberately avoid the word "factor." Nevertheless, Fredrickson et al (3) implied, and Cole and Fredrickson (14) stated explicitly, that a factor analysis of the psychometric data from the MHC-SF in their study revealed just two distinct factors (hedonic and eudaimonic), corresponding to Keyes' (12) "diagnostic question" categories (i.e., items SF1-SF3 for hedonic and SF4-SF14 for eudaimonic).…”

“…Problems with the Factor Structure of the Short Flourishing Scale Fredrickson et al (3) measured well-being using an instrument that they named the Short Flourishing Scale, although this seems to have previously been referred to in the literature as the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) (11). According to Keyes (12), the MHC-SF assesses three forms of well-being: emotional well-being (items SF1-SF3), social well-being (items SF4-SF8), and psychological well-being (items SF9-SF14).…”

Promoting well-being through group drumming with mental health service users and their carers

“…Conversely, an individual can simultaneously experience symptoms of psychopathology and maintain positive functioning and psychological flourishing. This “two-continua model” has been validated in multiple populations (Keyes, 2006; Keyes, Eisenberg, Dhingra, Perry, & Dube, 2012; Keyes et al, 2008) and using different measurements and conceptualizations of mental health and illness (Compton, Smith, Cornish, & Qualls, 1996; Greenspoon & Saklofske, 2001; Headey, Kelley, & Wearing, 1993; Suldo & Shaffer, 2008; Westerhof & Keyes, 2010). An important implication is that an individual is only completely healthy when he or she experiences both low levels of psychopathological symptoms and a good state of well-being.…”