Assessing Mental Wellbeing Using the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modelling

Public Health Significance Statement Mental wellbeing has been a traditional focus of clinical psychologists and is receiving renewed attention in current practice and research. This article reviewed the factor structure of a popular assessment tool of mental wellbeing, the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF). The study showed that the MHC-SF is a measure of mental wellbeing that can be used in both the general and clinical populations to measure overall wellbeing, as well as emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. Mental wellbeing is an increasingly relevant outcome in clinical psychology, and rigorous measurement tools are required to ensure high quality data. This study aimed to systematically review and meta-analyze the factor structure of a popular measurement tool of mental wellbeing, the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF). The systematic review identified 46 studies which investigated the performance of the MHC-SF, which consistently supported the psychometric properties of the scale. Meta-analytic structural equation modelling (MASEM) was used with data extracted from 26 studies (n = 108,603). MASEM indicated support for the original tripartite structure of the MHC-SF, as well as a hierarchical model and a bifactor model. The hierarchical model (and the nested tripartite model) was supported theoretically and performed similarly across clinical and general populations. The current study demonstrates that the MHC-SF is a valid measure of general mental wellbeing, which taps into concepts of emotional, social, and psychological wellbeing in general and clinical populations. Caution may be required when comparing scores across clinical and non-clinical cohorts.

Automated summary

This article reviewed the factor structure of the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF), a popular assessment tool of mental wellbeing, and found that it is a valid measure of overall wellbeing, as well as emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. This has significant implications for clinical psychology research and practice.