Measurement Invariance of the WHO-5 Well-Being Index: Evidence from 15 European Countries

Alina Paula Cosma · András Költő · Yekaterina Chzhen · Dorota Wiktoria Kleszczewska · Michal Kalman · Gina Martin

32 citations0/0 files storedInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Psychometric Methodologies and Testing Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction Mental Health Research Topics

Abstract

(1) Background: The World Health Organization (WHO)-5 Well-Being Index has been used in many epidemiological studies to assess adolescent mental well-being. However, cross-country comparisons of this instrument among adolescents are scarce and, so far, no good-fitting, common invariant measurement model across countries has been reported. The present study aims to evaluate and establish a version of the WHO-5 Well-Being Index that allows for a valid cross-country comparison of adolescent self-reported mental well-being. (2) Methods: Using data from the 2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, we evaluated the measurement model and measurement invariance of the five items of the WHO-5 Well-Being Index. We used nationally representative samples of 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old adolescents (N = 74,071) from fifteen countries and regions in Europe. Measurement invariance of the WHO-5 was assessed using a series (country, gender, and age) of multi-group confirmatory factor analyses. In addition, we evaluated the convergent validity of the measure by testing its correlations with psychosomatic complaints, life satisfaction, and self-rated health. (3) Results: We found that WHO-5 does not show good psychometric properties or good measurement invariance fit. However, by excluding the first item of the scale (“I have felt cheerful and in good spirits”), the WHO-4, consisting of the other four original items, had good psychometric properties, and demonstrated good suitability for cross-national comparisons (as well as age and gender) in adolescent mental well-being. (4) Conclusions: The present study introduces the WHO-4—a revised version of the WHO-5—, that allows for a valid comparison of mental well-being across fifteen countries and regions in Europe. The WHO-4 proved to be a reliable and valid instrument to assess mental well-being in the adolescent population.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 32 citations exist upstream.

References

1999Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives 2002Evaluating Goodness-of-Fit Indexes for Testing Measurement Invariance 2011Making sense of Cronbach's alpha 2007Sensitivity of Goodness of Fit Indexes to Lack of Measurement Invariance 2015The WHO-5 Well-Being Index: A Systematic Review of the Literature 2016Structural Equation Modeling With AMOS 2014Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageing 2012A checklist for testing measurement invariance

Cited by

2025Cross-National Validation of the WHO-5 Well-Being Index Within Adolescent Populations: Findings From 43 Countries

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.