The Effect of Psychological Distress on Measurement Invariance in Measures of Mental Wellbeing

Iasiello, Matthew; Muir-Cochrane, Eimear; van Agteren, Joep; Fassnacht, Daniel B.

doi:10.3390/ijerph191610072

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Psychological Distress on Measurement Invariance in Measures of Mental Wellbeing

by

Matthew Iasiello

^1,2,*,

Eimear Muir-Cochrane

²,

Joep van Agteren

^1,3 and

Daniel B. Fassnacht

³

¹

Mental Health and Wellbeing Program, Lifelong Health Theme, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide 5000, Australia

²

College of Nursing and Health Science, Flinders University, Adelaide 5042, Australia

³

College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide 5042, Australia

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(16), 10072; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610072

Submission received: 7 July 2022 / Revised: 10 August 2022 / Accepted: 12 August 2022 / Published: 15 August 2022

(This article belongs to the Section Mental Health)

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Abstract

A growing literature supports the expansion of mental health assessment to include indicators of mental wellbeing; however, the concurrent use of measures of wellbeing and distress introduces potential sources of measurement error. The current study examines whether the mental health continuum short form is invariant to the level of participants’ psychological distress. Measurement invariance testing was conducted within an Australian population (n = 8406) who participated in an online survey. The depression anxiety stress scale was used to construct a non-distressed group (n = 6420) and a severe-distress group (n = 1968). Results showed that metric invariance was not observed, as item loadings on the latent variables were significantly different between the groups. This signifies that wellbeing items may be interpreted and valued differently by distressed and non-distressed individuals. Metric non-invariance indicates that total and subscale scores may not be equivalent, and caution is required when making comparisons between these groups.

Keywords: measurement invariance; wellbeing; psychological distress; assessment

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MDPI and ACS Style

Iasiello, M.; Muir-Cochrane, E.; van Agteren, J.; Fassnacht, D.B. The Effect of Psychological Distress on Measurement Invariance in Measures of Mental Wellbeing. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10072. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610072

AMA Style

Iasiello M, Muir-Cochrane E, van Agteren J, Fassnacht DB. The Effect of Psychological Distress on Measurement Invariance in Measures of Mental Wellbeing. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(16):10072. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610072

Chicago/Turabian Style

Iasiello, Matthew, Eimear Muir-Cochrane, Joep van Agteren, and Daniel B. Fassnacht. 2022. "The Effect of Psychological Distress on Measurement Invariance in Measures of Mental Wellbeing" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 16: 10072. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610072

APA Style

Iasiello, M., Muir-Cochrane, E., van Agteren, J., & Fassnacht, D. B. (2022). The Effect of Psychological Distress on Measurement Invariance in Measures of Mental Wellbeing. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(16), 10072. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610072

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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The Effect of Psychological Distress on Measurement Invariance in Measures of Mental Wellbeing

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