Factor structure and psychometric properties of a Polish adaptation of the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale

BACKGROUND: The study of mental wellbeing requires reliable, valid, and practical measurement tools. One of the most widely used measures of mental wellbeing is the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS). We conducted four studies to validate the Polish version of the WEMWBS. Their objectives are the following: (1) to present the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the WEMWBS (study 1: n = 1197); (2) to evaluate the test–retest reliability of the Polish version of the WEMWBS (study 2: n = 24); (3) to determine the validity of the WEMWBS (study 3: n = 610); (4) to examine sensitivity of the WEMWBS scale to detect population with different levels of pro-health behaviours (study 4: n = 430). METHODS: To explore the dimensional structure of the scale we tested a one-factor model. The evaluation employed explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses and tested reliability and stability. To determine the convergent validity of the WEMWBS we analysed correlations among wellbeing and life satisfaction and risk depression. To examine sensitivity of the WEMWBS scale to detect a population with different levels of health-related behaviours we used Student’s t test. RESULTS: The results presented confirm that the psychometric properties of the Polish adaptation of WEMWBS are very good. Using EFA and CFA it was shown that a one-factor solution is optimal. Reliability, measured using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and McDonald's omega proved to be very high. The estimation of the stability of the Polish version of the WEMWBS proved to be high. Our validation studies also provided data demonstrating sensitivity of the WEMWBS to detect a population with different levels of health-related behaviours, indicating that group with high level of pro-health behaviours achieved higher WEMWBS wellbeing results than group with low level of pro-health behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: WEMWBS was confirmed as a short, reliable and valid measure with good psychometric properties. Due to the high indicators for its psychometric properties, the scale may therefore prove to be a particularly useful tool not only in empirical research, but also in mental wellbeing monitoring, and could serve as support in educational and preventive.