BACKGROUND: Middle and late adolescence is the period in a person's life that is most vulnerable to mental health problems. To enable an evidence base that can support policies to prevent such problems, it is crucial to have good quality, reliable, and accurate measurement tools for mental well-being. One of them is the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS). This study aimed to test the psychometric properties of the SWEMWBS on a large sample of adolescents aged 16 to 19 from the United Kingdom (UK) (N = 8,090). Data were from four waves of the longitudinal panel study Understanding Society. METHODS: The analysis was conducted using Item Response Theory (IRT), which is the most appropriate method for testing psychometric properties. The Graded Response Model (GRM) was applied to the data. The reliability and criterion validity of the SWEMWBS were also examined. RESULTS: The presented results confirm the very good psychometric properties of the SWEMWBS amongst adolescents aged 16 to 19 years. The assumptions for the use (unidimensionality, local non-independence, monotonicity) of IRT were met. The results of GRM showed very high discriminant power for all items. The five-category response scale performed optimally; however, differences were found between points on the response scale both between and within items. In general, the scale as a whole showed very good functioning, but particularly in the negative values of mental well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The SWEMWBS was confirmed as a concise, reliable, and valid instrument for measuring mental well-being among older UK adolescents.

Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Prague Czech Republic

University of Essex Colchester UK

See more in PubMed

Sacks D, Canadian Paediatric Society, Adolescent Health Committee Age limits and adolescents. Paediatr Child Health. 2003;8(9):577. doi: 10.1093/pch/8.9.577. PubMed DOI PMC

World Health Organization. Adolescent Health. World Health Organization. Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2023. Available from: https://www.who.int/health-topics/adolescent-health#tab=tab_1.

World Health Organization. Mental health of adolescents. Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2021. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health.

NHS. Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2022 - wave 3 follow up to the 2017 survey. NHS Digital. England: NHS; 2022. Available from: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2022-follow-up-to-the-2017-survey.

Black L, Panayiotou M, Humphrey N. Measuring general mental health in early-mid adolescence: a systematic meta-review of content and psychometrics. JCPP Adv. 2023;3(1):e12125. doi: 10.1002/jcv2.12125. PubMed DOI PMC

Linton MJ, Dieppe P, Medina-Lara A. Review of 99 self-report measures for assessing well-being in adults: exploring dimensions of well-being and developments over time. BMJ Open. 2016;6(7):e010641. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010641. PubMed DOI PMC

Orth Z, Moosajee F, Van Wyk B. Measuring mental wellness of adolescents: a systematic review of instruments. Front Psychol. 2022;13:835601. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.835601. PubMed DOI PMC

Tennant R, Hiller L, Fishwick R, Platt S, Joseph S, Weich S, et al. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): development and UK validation. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2007;5(1):63. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-5-63. PubMed DOI PMC

Stewart-Brown S, Tennant A, Tennant R, Platt S, Parkinson J, Weich S. Internal construct validity of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): a Rasch analysis using data from the Scottish health education population survey. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2009;7(1):15. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-7-15. PubMed DOI PMC

Anthony R, Moore G, Page N, Hewitt G, Murphy S, Melendez-Torres GJ. Measurement invariance of the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and latent mean differences (SWEMWBS) in young people by current care status. Qual Life Res. 2022;31(1):205–213. doi: 10.1007/s11136-021-02896-0. PubMed DOI PMC

Melendez-Torres GJ, Hewitt G, Hallingberg B, Anthony R, Collishaw S, Hall J, et al. Measurement invariance properties and external construct validity of the short Warwick-Edinburgh mental wellbeing scale in a large national sample of secondary school students in Wales. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2019;17(1):139. doi: 10.1186/s12955-019-1204-z. PubMed DOI PMC

Ng Fat L, Scholes S, Boniface S, Mindell J, Stewart-Brown S. Evaluating and establishing national norms for mental wellbeing using the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS): findings from the health survey for England. Qual Life Res. 2017;26(5):1129–1144. doi: 10.1007/s11136-016-1454-8. PubMed DOI PMC

Ringdal R, Bradley Eilertsen ME, Bjørnsen HN, Espnes GA, Moksnes UK. Validation of two versions of the Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale among Norwegian adolescents. Scand J Public Health. 2018;46(7):718–725. doi: 10.1177/1403494817735391. PubMed DOI

Haroz EE, Kane JC, Nguyen AJ, Bass JK, Murray LK, Bolton P. When less is more: reducing redundancy in mental health and psychosocial instruments using item response theory. Glob Ment Health. 2020;7:e3. doi: 10.1017/gmh.2019.30. PubMed DOI PMC

Golberg D, Williams P. A user’s guide to the general health questionnaire. Windsor: NFER-Nelson; 1988.

Muraki E. A generalized partial credit model: application of an EM algorithm. Appl Psychol Meas. 1992;16(2):159–176. doi: 10.1177/014662169201600206. DOI

Samejima F. Estimation of latent ability using a response pattern of graded scores. Psychometrika. 1969;34(S1):1–97. doi: 10.1007/BF03372160. DOI

DeMars C. Item response theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2010.

Baker FB. The basics of item response theory. 2. College Park: ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation; 2001.

Yen WM. Effects of local item dependence on the fit and equating performance of the three-parameter logistic model. Appl Psychol Meas. 1984;8(2):125–145. doi: 10.1177/014662168400800201. DOI

Chen WH, Thissen D. Local Dependence indexes for item pairs using item response theory. J Educ Behav Stat. 1997;22(3):265. doi: 10.2307/1165285. DOI

Toland MD. Practical guide to conducting an item response theory analysis. J Early Adolesc. 2014;34(1):120–151. doi: 10.1177/0272431613511332. DOI

Edwards MC. An introduction to item response theory using the need for cognition scale: IRT INTRO. Soc Personal Psychol Compass. 2009;3(4):507–529. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00194.x. DOI

Gignac GE, Szodorai ET. Effect size guidelines for individual differences researchers. Pers Individ Dif. 2016;102:74–78. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.069. DOI

Clarke A, Friede T, Putz R, Ashdown J, Martin S, Blake A, et al. Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): validated for teenage school students in England and Scotland. A mixed methods assessment. BMC Public Health. 2011;11(1):487. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-487. PubMed DOI PMC

Fung SF. Psychometric evaluation of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) with Chinese University Students. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2019;17(1):46. doi: 10.1186/s12955-019-1113-1. PubMed DOI PMC

Bass M, Dawkin M, Muncer S, Vigurs S, Bostock J. Validation of Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) in a population of people using Secondary Care Mental Health Services. J Ment Health. 2016;25(4):323–329. doi: 10.3109/09638237.2015.1124401. PubMed DOI

Vaingankar JA, Abdin E, Chong SA, Sambasivam R, Seow E, Jeyagurunathan A, et al. Psychometric properties of the short Warwick Edinburgh mental well-being scale (SWEMWBS) in service users with schizophrenia, depression and anxiety spectrum disorders. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2017;15(1):153. doi: 10.1186/s12955-017-0728-3. PubMed DOI PMC

Konaszewski K, Niesiobędzka M, Surzykiewicz J. Factor structure and psychometric properties of a Polish adaptation of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2021;19(1):70. doi: 10.1186/s12955-021-01716-w. PubMed DOI PMC

Koushede V, Lasgaard M, Hinrichsen C, Meilstrup C, Nielsen L, Rayce SB, et al. Measuring mental well-being in Denmark: validation of the original and short version of the Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale (WEMWBS and SWEMWBS) and cross-cultural comparison across four European settings. Psychiatry Res. 2019;271:502–509. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.12.003. PubMed DOI

Mavali S, Mahmoodi H, Sarbakhsh P, Shaghaghi A. Psychometric Properties of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) in the Iranian older adults. Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2020;13:693–700. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S256323. PubMed DOI PMC

McKay MT, Andretta JR. Evidence for the psychometric validity, internal consistency and measurement invariance of Warwick Edinburgh mental well-being scale scores in Scottish and Irish adolescents. Psychiatry Res. 2017;255:382–386. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.06.071. PubMed DOI

Waqas A, Ahmad W, Haddad M, Taggart FM, Muhammad Z, Bukhari MH, et al. Measuring the well-being of health care professionals in the Punjab: a psychometric evaluation of the Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale in a Pakistani population. PeerJ. 2015;3:e1264. doi: 10.7717/peerj.1264. PubMed DOI PMC

Marmara J, Zarate D, Vassallo J, Patten R, Stavropoulos V. Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS): measurement invariance across genders and item response theory examination. BMC Psychol. 2022;10(1):31. doi: 10.1186/s40359-022-00720-z. PubMed DOI PMC

Deng W, Carpentier S, Blackwood J, Van de Winckel A. Rasch validation of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) in community-dwelling adults. BMC Psychol. 2023;11(1):48. doi: 10.1186/s40359-023-01058-w. PubMed DOI PMC

Hauch D, Fjorback LO, Juul L. Psychometric properties of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale in a sample of Danish schoolchildren. Scand J Public Health. 2022:14034948221110002. PubMed

Stewart-Brown SL, Platt S, Tennant A, Maheswaran H, Parkinson J, Weich S, et al. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): a valid and reliable tool for measuring mental well-being in diverse populations and projects. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2011;65(Suppl 2):A38–A39. doi: 10.1136/jech.2011.143586.86. DOI

Validation and psychometric evaluation of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS) among Czech adolescents using Item Response Theory