The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): a valid and reliable tool for measuring mental well-being in diverse populations and projects

Stewart‐Brown, Sarah; Platt, Stephen; Tennant, Alan; Maheswaran, Hendramoorthy; Parkinson, Jane; Weich, Scott; Tennant, Ruth; Taggart, Frances M.; Clarke, Aileen

doi:10.1136/jech.2011.143586.86

Cited by 211 publications

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“…The survey included the following measures: (i) Demographic details including age, gender and employment-related information, (ii) Self-reported PA status (PA stages of change questionnaire), 36 (iii) Self-reported PA over the past seven days (international PA questionnaire (IPAQ), short form), 37 (iv) Mental well-being (Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS)). 38 The PA and well-being measures were selected due to their documented psychometric properties [39][40] and suitability for electronic distribution. 26,41 Both the IPAQ and WEMWBS are sensitive to change and suitable for surveillance of PA and well-being following health promotion interventions, therefore it will be possible to compare the current data to that collected in the future, in order to evaluate the effect of the work-based health promotion strategies that are developed as a result of this research.…”

Section: Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

An exploration of physical activity and wellbeing in university employees

Cooper

Barton

2015

Perspect Public Health

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AimsThe aim was to explore levels of physical activity and mental well-being in university employees, as well as barriers to and incentives for workplace physical activity. MethodsAn electronic survey was distributed to all staff at one UK University. The survey consisted of: Physical activity stages of change questionnaire; international physical activity questionnaire (short-form); Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS); questions on perceived barriers to and incentives for workplace physical activity; questions on methods of enhancing employee well-being; demographics. A self-selected sample participated in two focus groups to explore key themes arising from the survey. Descriptive statistics were reported for survey data; associations between physical activity and well-being were tested for using Kruskal-Wallis with 2 post-hoc Mann-Whitney. Descriptive, thematic analysis was performed on focus group transcripts.Results 502 surveys were completed (34% response rate); thirteen staff participated in focus groups. 42% of the sample reported physical activity below the recommended guideline amount. Females were less active than males (p<0.005). The mean WEMWBS was 49.2 (95%CI 48.3 -49.9). Low physical activity levels were related to lower WEMWBS scores, with statistically significant differences in WEMWBS demonstrated between low and moderate physical activity (p,0.05) and low and high physical activity (p,0.001). Lack of time and perceived expense of facilities were common barriers to workplace physical activity. The main focus group finding was the impact of university culture on workplace physical activity and well-being. ConclusionsUniversity staff demonstrate physical activity levels and a relationship between physical activity and well-being similar to the general population. Carefully designed strategies aimed at enhancing physical activity and well-being in university staff are required. The specific cultural and other barriers to workplace physical activity that 3 exist in this setting should be considered. These results are being used to inform such interventions whose effectiveness will be evaluated in future research.

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Section: Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

An exploration of physical activity and wellbeing in university employees

Cooper

Barton

2015

Perspect Public Health

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“…One instrument that has shown promise and may be particularly useful for school, educational, and developmental psychologists is the 14-item Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well Being Scale (WEMWBS: Stewart-Brown et al, 2011;Tennant et al, 2007). This covers both hedonic elements of positive mental wellbeing (9 items covering happiness, joy, contentment: e.g., "I've been feeling cheerful", "I've been feeling optimistic about the future", "I've been feeling relaxed") and eudemonic elements of positive mental wellbeing (5 items covering psychological functioning, autonomy, positive relationships with others, sense of purpose in life: e.g., "I've had energy to spare", "I've been thinking clearly", "I've been able to make up my own mind about things").…”

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confidence: 99%

Positive Mental Well-being in Australian Adolescents: Evaluating the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale

Hunter

Houghton

2015

The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist

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While there is increasing recognition of the need to go beyond measures of mental ill health, there is a relative dearth of validated tools for assessing mental wellbeing among adolescents. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) is a promising tool for use in this context, and this study evaluated its use in an Australian context. The WEBWBS was completed by 829 Western Australian adolescents, aged 13 to 16 years old, drawn from grades 8, 9 and 10 in seven separate high schools. Using confirmatory factor analytic techniques, the utility of the full 14-item scale was not supported but good fit for a previously validated seven-item short version (SWEMWBS) was supported. Strong measurement invariance was demonstrated across age and weak measurement invariance was demonstrated across gender. The scale has good internal reliability. There were no differences in SWEMWBS scores across Grades 8 to 10. Overall, the SWEMWBS represents a useful tool for educational, developmental, and school psychologists investigating positive mental wellbeing in younger adolescents.

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“…A good example of this is the inclusion of Stewart-Brown, one of the lead authors of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (see Stewart-Brown, Platt, Tennant, et al 2011;Tennant, Fishwich, Platt, et al 2006). As an author of a key well-being instrument, in use in the United Kingdom at the time of the programme (and so surveyed in Waldron 2010, the ONS' desk-research on what statistics were already collected on well-being), she is someone who it would be natural to turn to.…”

Section: How Theoretical Context Shaped the Programmementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subjective well-being here takes on the simple, mechanical form of the regression models used to analyse it, collapsing complex personal evaluations and states into simple generalisations about the relation between stated evaluation and everything else on the survey. For the psychologists, such as Stewart-Brown (Stewart-Brown, Platt, Tennant, et al 2011;Tennant, Fishwich, Platt, et al 2006), who sat on advisory panels for the 'Measuring National Well-being' programme, 'well-being' is not simply a state, but is a component of a wider self; it is a capability which mediates interactions with the external world, rather than being a simple product of factors within that world. This points to divergent ethoses of wellbeing; to put it somewhat crudely, for the economists well-being is a universal state subject to universal patterns and laws, for those in public health it is a personal state to be understood in a personal context.…”

Section: Suh Lucas and Smith 1999)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, et al (2004) and Watson, Clark and Tellegen (1988) Tennant, et al 2011;Tennant, Fishwich, Platt, et al 2006). Such approaches are very different from single-item stated evaluations: while they rest on self-report, they consider well-being as a set of capabilities, rather than outcomes, to be imputed from responses not simply read from them.…”

Section: Suh Lucas and Smith 1999)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Official statistic-making as a social practice: the UK 'Measuring National Well-being' programme

Jenkins¹

2018

Preprint

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The thesis examines the construction of official statistics using the qualitative case study of the UK Office for National Statistics' 'Measuring National Well-being' programme. Its major original contribution is to critically engage with the making of official statistics, theorising their construction as a social process. This provides novel ways of explaining the form and content of official statistics. It also furthers debates on 'wellbeing' through an examination of the concept's theoretical and institutional history.The research argues that official statistic-making is an activity conducted by actors with agency. This agency is not taken into account by existing accounts of the nature of official statistics, which are more abstract and which do not engage with the statisticmaking process. It is argued that attention to the social processes of official statisticmaking make a fuller understanding of the form and content of statistics possible. This argument is supported by an examination of the 'Measuring National Well-being' programme. The institutional and theoretical context for this programme presents a number of challenges to existing accounts, highlighting the need for agential action. This context is explored through semi-structured interviews with those involved in the creation of the programme, triangulated against secondary material such as meeting minutes produced by the Office for National Statistics and published statistical outputs.In the specific case of the 'Measuring National Well-being' programme, the research finds a high degree of autonomy for those constructing the programme. This freedom was used to position the programme within wider European and international statistical contexts, rather than domestic political ones. Despite being a programme in a new area of social research, the final content of the programme fitted within established ways of thinking partly as a result of path dependency created by the statisticians' preestablished ways of working.More generally, it is argued that approaching the construction of official statistics as a social process helps explain the form and content of the statistic. The research demonstrates that it is possible to trace linkages between the features of the final statistic and social interactions which gave rise to them. It is argued that this is applicable beyond the case study used and beyond statistic-making in the UK.i

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The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): a valid and reliable tool for measuring mental well-being in diverse populations and projects

Abstract: Background The outcomes framework for the new public health and mental health strategies in England (Healthy copyright.

Cited by 211 publications

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An exploration of physical activity and wellbeing in university employees

An exploration of physical activity and wellbeing in university employees

Positive Mental Well-being in Australian Adolescents: Evaluating the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale

Official statistic-making as a social practice: the UK 'Measuring National Well-being' programme

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