The Structural Validity and Measurement Invariance of the Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (MHC-SF) in a Large Canadian Sample

Well‐being in Patients with Affective Disorders Compared to Nonclinical Participants: A Multi‐Model Evaluation of the Mental Health Continuum‐Short Form

“…One of the earliest alternative MHC-SF structural formulations examined to overcome the first inherent limitation of traditional CFA (i.e., the hierarchical nature of psychological constructs) was bifactor CFA (Reise, 2012). The bifactor CFA representation has been shown to outperform the traditional three-factor CFA model when applied to the MHC-SF (de Bruin & du Plessis, 2015;Echeverria et al, 2017;Hides et al, 2016;Jovanovic, 2015;Lamborn et al, 2018;Longo et al, 2017;Machado & Bandeira, 2015;Rogoza et al, 2018;Schutte & Wissing, 2017;Zemojtel-Piotrowska et al, 2018) and this was replicated in the current study. Across samples, the introduction of the general factor halved EWB loadings, annihilated SWB items 4-5 and PWB items 11-14 loadings, leaving SWB items 6-8 loadings unchanged.…”

“…The recently developed bifactor ESEM model addresses both limitations inherent in traditional CFA as it combines both a general factor and specific factors orthogonal to each other, and it also allows items to load on target factors but also cross‐load on nontarget factors (Morin et al, ). Bifactor ESEM has most recently been studied with MHC‐SF (Lamborn et al, ; Longo et al, ; Rogoza et al, ; Schutte & Wissing, ) and it was found to produce a better fit than both bifactor CFA and three‐factor ESEM. In the current study, bifactor ESEM attained the best fit than all models tested, replicating previous findings.…”

“…Several studies have examined the measurement invariance of various MHC‐SF structural representations in nonclinical samples across gender, age groups and diverse cultural contexts (e.g. Guo et al, ; Joshanloo, ; Joshanloo et al, ; Lamborn et al, ; Lamers, Glas, et al, ; Rogoza et al, ; Schutte & Wissing, ; Zemojtel‐Piotrowska et al, ). In the current study, measurement invariance was for the first time investigated across both gender and clinical/nonclinical groups in a mixed sample.…”

“…">We examined the construct validity, assessed with CFA and ESEM techniques. Based on previous research, the following six models were evaluated in all three samples: (a) a single factor CFA model with all 14 items; (b) a two correlated factors CFA model with EWB in one factor and both SWB and PWB in a second factor; (c) a three correlated factors CFA model with EWB, SWB, and PWB, as proposed by Keyes (), (); (d) a bifactor CFA model (Schmid & Leiman, ), where each item loads on a specific factor (i.e., EWB, SWB, or PWB) and simultaneously on a general factor (GF), all four factors being orthogonal to each other (de Bruin & du Plessis, ; Hides et al, ; Jovanovic, ); (e) a three‐factor ESEM model (Asparouhov & Muthén, ; Marsh et al, ), where all 14 items are loading on all three correlated factors (i.e., EWB, SWB, and PWB) simultaneously (Joshanloo, ; Joshanloo & Jovanovic, ; Joshanloo & Lamers, ; Joshanloo, Jose, et al, ); (f) a bifactor ESEM model (Morin et al, ), where all 14 items are simultaneously loading on EWB, SWB, PWB, and GF, all four factors being orthogonal to each other (Lamborn, Cramer, & Riberdy, ; Longo, Jovanovic, Sampaio de Carvalho, & Karas, ; Rogoza et al, ; Schutte & Wissing, ). We did not test a higher‐order model (Dore et al, ; Lupano Perugini et al, ; Petrillo et al, ) because for a three first‐order factorial structure, like MHC‐SF, the second‐order is just identified.…”

Editorial to the Inaugural Volume of the Journal of Well-Being Assessment

“…For example, amongst other conceptualizations, submissions dealing with the measurement of psychological well-being (Ryff 1989), flourishing (e.g., Diener et al 2010;Seligman 2011), mental health (Lamborn et al 2017), happiness (Proyer et al 2017), or hedonic and eudaimonic well-being (e.g., Peterson et al 2005) fit the scope of the journal. In short, work on the assessment of variables that contribute to well-being in the sense of positive psychological functioning may be considered for publication.…”