Open Access

ARTICLE

Reliability and Validity of Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale among Chinese Civil Servants

Shulan Lei^1,2, Shujuan Wang¹, Zhuohong Zhu^1,2, Min Lu^1,2, Xinying Li^1,2, Yiming Shen³, Jing Chen^1,2,*

1 Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
2 Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
3 Psychology, Bachelor of Science, University of California, Davis, 95616, USA

* Corresponding Author: Jing Chen. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Social Stress, Adversity, and Mental Health in Transitional China)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2024, 26(1), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2023.045478

Received 28 August 2023; Accepted 13 November 2023; Issue published 05 February 2024

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the reliability and validity of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) among Chinese civil servants, thus establishing a useful tool for assessing the mental health of individuals in this occupation. The WEMWBS, Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) were administered to a sample of 2,624 civil servants (42.860 ± 9.690 years) in a city located within Shandong Province, China. The findings revealed significant differences between groups with high and low scores on each item of the WEMWBS (t = 48.127–78.308, all p < 0.01). The item-total correlation of WEMWBS ranged from 0.752 to 0.911 (all p < 0.01). Scree plot and parallel analysis results suggested a one-factor solution with factor loadings ranging from 0.762–0.918, accounting for 73.16% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a single-factor model of the Chinese version of the WEMWBS (CFI = 0.997, TLI = 0.996, RMSEA = 0.0330). The Chinese version of the WEMWBS was positively correlated with the SWLS (r = 0.710, both p < 0.01) and negatively correlated with depression, anxiety, stress, and total DASS-21 score (r = −0.512, −0.437, −0.488, −0.497, all p < 0.01). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Guttman split-half coefficient of the Chinese version of the WEMWBS were 0.970 and 0.953, respectively. In conclusion, the 14-item Chinese version of the WEMWBS demonstrated strong reliability and validity, establishing its utility as a precise tool for measuring and assessing the mental health status of civil servants in China.

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Keywords

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