Psychometric properties of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale in a sample of Danish schoolchildren

Abstract

Aim:

The aims of this this study was to examine the psychometric properties, including internal consistency and construct validity, of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS) in a sample of Danish schoolchildren aged 10–16 years.

Method:

A total of 1155 schoolchildren (54% girls) aged 10–16 years (M_age=12 years, SD=1.3) responded to an electronic questionnaire as part of the Danish SELFCARE study. To examine the internal consistency and construct validity of the SWEMWBS, we performed descriptive statistics, reliability and correlation analyses in Stata as well as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in Mplus. Correlations between scores on the SWEMWBS and scores on scales from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were calculated using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients. The analysis was conducted on the general study population and in subgroups divided by sex and class (age groups).

Results:

CFA confirmed SWEMWBS one-dimensional factor structure, and the model fit the data well (CFI=0.984, TLI=0.97, RMSEA=0.062 and SRMR=0.021). The scale showed satisfactory internal consistency (ɑ=0.78) and composite reliability (ω=0.82). In addition, the scale was shown to have acceptable construct validity. Thus, correlations between scores on the SWEMWBS and SDQ subscales were in line with expectations. Corresponding results were found for subgroups divided by sex and class (age groups).

Conclusions:

Our study indicates that the Danish translation of the SWEMWBS is valid for measuring well-being among Danish schoolchildren aged 10–16 years. This construct validation study is among the first to validate the SWEMWBS in younger populations.