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Development, validity and reliability of the short multidimensional positive mental health instrument

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Abstract

Purpose

The 47-item positive mental health (PMH) instrument measures the level of PMH in multiethnic adult Asian populations. This study aimed to (1) develop a short PMH instrument and (2) establish its validity and reliability among the adult Singapore population.

Methods

Two separate studies were conducted among adult community-dwelling Singapore residents of Chinese, Malay or Indian ethnicity where participants completed self-administered questionnaires. In the first study, secondary data analysis was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to shorten the PMH instrument. In the second study, the newly developed short PMH instrument and other scales were administered to 201 residents to establish its factor structure, validity and reliability.

Results

A 20-item short PMH instrument fulfilling a higher-order six-factor structure was developed following secondary analysis. The mean age of the participants in the second study was 41 years and about 53 % were women. One item with poor factor loading was further removed to generate a 19-item version of the PMH instrument. CFA demonstrated a first-order six-factor model of the short PMH instrument. The PMH-19 instrument and its subscales fulfilled criterion validity hypotheses. Internal consistency and test–retest reliability of the PMH-19 instrument were high (Cronbach’s α coefficient = 0.87; intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.93, respectively).

Conclusions

The 19-item PMH instrument is multidimensional, valid and reliable, and most importantly, with its reduced administration time, the short PMH instrument can be used to measure and evaluate PMH in Asian communities.

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Acknowledgments

The first study was funded by the Singapore Millennium Foundation of the Temasek Trust and the Ministry of Health, Singapore. The second study was supported by funding from the Woodbridge Hospital Endowment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Division, Institute of Mental Health, 10 Buangkok View, Singapore, 539747, Singapore

    Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar, Mythily Subramaniam, Edimansyah Abdin, Louisa Picco, Boon Yiang Chua, Goi Khia Eng, Rajeswari Sambasivam, Saleha Shafie, Yunjue Zhang & Siow Ann Chong

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  1. Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar
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  2. Mythily Subramaniam
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Correspondence to Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar.

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Vaingankar, J.A., Subramaniam, M., Abdin, E. et al. Development, validity and reliability of the short multidimensional positive mental health instrument. Qual Life Res 23, 1459–1477 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-013-0589-0

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