The factor structure of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) in Serbia: an evaluation using exploratory structural equation modeling.

BACKGROUND

The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) is a brief measure to assess emotional, social, and psychological well-being.

AIMS

We examined the factor structure of the MHC-SF in Serbia. A secondary goal was to examine measurement invariance and latent mean differences across gender.

METHOD

The methods of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) were used to investigate the factor structure of the scale in a large sample (N = 1883). We compared 1-, 2-, and 3-factor models of mental well-being.

RESULTS

The results supported the superiority of the 3-factor model of well-being over the alternatives. ESEM yielded better fit with the data and considerably smaller factor correlations than did CFA. ESEM also uncovered a number of cross-loadings in the MHC-SF. Full measurement invariance was established across gender, yet no significant gender differences were identified in the latent means.

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that emotional, social, and psychological well-being represents correlated yet distinct factors in Serbia. The results also suggest that ESEM is a more appropriate method than CFA for examining the factor structure of mental well-being. The contributions of ESEM to current debates surrounding the distinction between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being are discussed.