title: Measuring positive mental health in Canada: construct validation of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Positive mental health is increasingly recognized as an important focus for public health policies and programs. In Canada, the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) was identified as a promising measure to include on population surveys to measure positive mental health. It proposes to measure a three-factor model of positive mental health including emotional, social and psychological well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the MHC-SF is an adequate measure of positive mental health for Canadian adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using data from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS)-Mental Health Component (CCHS-MH), and cross-validated the model using data from the CCHS 2011-2012 annual cycle. We examined criterion-related validity through correlations of MHC-SF subscale scores with positively and negatively associated concepts (e.g. life satisfaction and psychological distress, respectively).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We confirmed the validity of the three-factor model of emotional, social and psychological well-being through CFA on two independent samples, once four correlated errors between items on the social well-being scale were added. We observed significant correlations in the anticipated direction between emotional, psychological and social well-being scores and related concepts. Cronbach's alpha for both emotional and psychological well-being subscales was 0.82; for social well-being it was 0.77.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study suggests that the MHC-SF measures a three-factor model of positive mental health in the Canadian population. However, caution is warranted when using the social well-being scale, which did not function as well as the other factors, as evidenced by the need to add several correlated error terms to obtain adequate model fit, a higher level of missing data on these questions and weaker correlations with related constructs. Social well-being is important in a comprehensive measure of positive mental health, and further research is recommended.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.|School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Orpana
authors.affiliation: Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vachon
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dykxhoorn
authors.affiliation: Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.|School of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Gayatri
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jayaraman
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D004644:Emotions; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011594:Psychometrics; D066252:Sociological Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: factor analysis; mental health; positive mental health; surveys and questionnaires