Salutogenic constructs across Pakistan and Germany: A cross sectional study

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Protective factors are relevant for mental health in general, however, universality of the instruments has been rarely tested. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine psychometric properties and cross-cultural measurement invariance of salutogenic constructs. METHOD: Data was collected from university students of Pakistan (n = 1,841) and Germany (n = 7,890). Single-group confirmatory analysis (CFA) and multiple-group CFA was tested to examine the proposed factor structure and measurement invariance of Positive Mental Health Scale, Resilience Scale, Perceived Social Support Questionnaire, and Life Satisfaction Scale across student samples from Pakistan and Germany respectively. RESULTS: We found strong measurement invariance for the Positive Mental Health Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale, and partial strong measurement for the Resilience Scale, and Perceived Social Support Questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that these scales could be recommended for the meaningful comparison of latent means across cultures. Understanding these differences would further advance our knowledge about the mechanism underlying positive mental health.