Abstract
Keyes’s theory-driven model of mental health uses a diagnosis which leads to three levels of positive feelings and positive functioning: languishing, moderately mentally healthy and flourishing (Keyes 2002). Although these three-level categories may be justified for a unidimensional factor structure, or a factorial structure using summated scales, the recent works supporting a multidimensional structure of the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF) suggest the adoption of shape-based rather than level-based categories of mental health (Morin et al. 2017). This research aims at testing the empirical validity of Keyes’s taxonomy and its relationship to psychosocial functioning. We first adopted a variable approach by selecting the optimal factor structure for the MHC-SF: the bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (Bi-ESEM). Following with a person-centered approach, we used a latent profile analysis on the factor scores of the Bi-ESEM. Psychosocial risks indicators were used as outcomes for testing the criterion validity of the models on a sample of 1065 French workers. Results show that the mental health subgroups are more intricate than the three-levels categories originally theorized by Keyes (2002, 2005). While the general Bi-ESEM factor warrants three levels akin to those of Keyes, accounting for the specific factors reveals two profiles of languishing: the hedonic languishers characterized by a low level of emotional wellbeing, and the eudaimonic languishers characterized by a low level of psychological wellbeing. Both variable and person-centered approach confirm Keyes’s initial statements (Keyes 2007) that those who are languishing exhibit the highest levels of psychosocial risks while those flourishing display the lowest. A rule-based diagnosis derived from a decision tree method is suggested as an alternative to a level-based taxonomy.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs220/en/ (retrieved October 05, 2018)
The full scale is available and permission for use is also granted by Keyes (2009) at: https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/MHC-SFEnglish.pdf [Online, retrieved October 5, 2018]
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition: DSM-IV-TR®. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890423349.
Aronsson, G., & Gustafsson, K. (2005). Sickness presenteeism: Prevalence, attendance-pressure factors, and an outline of a model for research. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 47(9), 958–966. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.jom.0000177219.75677.17.
Aronsson, G., Gustafsson, K., & Dallner, M. (2000). Sick but yet at work. An empirical study of sickness presenteeism. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 54(7), 502–509. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.54.7.502.
Asfaw, A. G., Chang, C. C., & Ray, T. K. (2014). Workplace mistreatment and sickness absenteeism from work: Results from the 2010 National Health Interview survey. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 57(2), 202–213. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22273.
Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2009). Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal,16(3), 397–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510903008204.
Asparouhov, T., Muthén, B., & Morin, A. J. (2015). Bayesian structural equation modeling with cross-loadings and residual covariances: Comments on Stromeyer et al. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315591075.
Avey, J. B., Luthans, F., & Jensen, S. M. (2009). Psychological capital: A positive resource for combating employee stress and turnover. Human Resource Management, 48(5), 677–693. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20294.
Baeriswyl, S., Krause, A., Elfering, A., & Berset, M. (2017). How workload and coworker support relate to emotional exhaustion: The mediating role of sickness presenteeism. International Journal of Stress Management, 24(S1), 52. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000018.
Bornstein, M. H., Davidson, L., Keyes, C. L., & Moore, K. A. (2012). Well-being: Positive development across the life course. Psychology Press. https://www.crcpress.com/
Breiman, L., Friedman, J., Olshen, R. A., & Stone, C. J. (1984). Classification and decision trees. Wadsworth, Belmont, 378. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315139470.
Brown, H. E., Gilson, N. D., Burton, N. W., & Brown, W. J. (2012). Does physical activity impact on Presenteeism and other indicators of workplace well-being? Sports Medicine, 41(3), 249–262. https://doi.org/10.2165/11539180-000000000-00000.
Brunetto, Y., Teo, S. T. T., Shacklock, K., & Farr-Wharton, R. (2012). Emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, well-being and engagement: Explaining organisational commitment and turnover intentions in policing. Human Resource Management Journal, 22(4), 428–441. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2012.00198.x.
Cameron, K. S., & Spreitzer, G. M. (2011). The Oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734610.001.0001.
Chen, F. F., West, S., & Sousa, K. (2006). A comparison of Bifactor and second-order models of quality of life. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 41(2), 189–225. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr4102_5.
Chen, F. F., Hayes, A., Carver, C. S., Laurenceau, J.-P., & Zhang, Z. (2012). Modeling general and specific variance in multifaceted constructs: A comparison of the bifactor model to other approaches. Journal of Personality, 80(1), 219–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00739.x.
Cousins, R., Cousins, R., MacKay, C. J., Clarke, S. D., Kelly, C., Kelly, P. J., & McCaig, R. H. (2004). ‘Management standards’ work-related stress in the UK: Practical development. Work and Stress, 18(2), 113–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370410001734322.
Cronbach, L. J., & Meehl, P. E. (1955). Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52(4), 281–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040957.
De Bruin, G. P., & Du Plessis, G. A. (2015). Bifactor analysis of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF). Psychological Reports, 116(2), 438–446. https://doi.org/10.2466/03.02.pr0.116k20w6.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.2.276.
Donaldson, S. I., & Ko, I. (2010). Positive organizational psychology, behavior, and scholarship: A review of the emerging literature and evidence base. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(3), 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439761003790930.
Elangovan, A. R. (2001). Causal ordering of stress, satisfaction and commitment, and intention to quit: A structural equations analysis. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 22(4), 159–165. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730110395051.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981a). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981b). Structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error: Algebra and statistics. Journal of Marketing Research, 382–388. https://doi.org/10.2307/3150980.
Gallagher, M. W., Lopez, S. J., & Preacher, K. J. (2009). The hierarchical structure of well-being. Journal of Personality, 77(4), 1025–1050. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00573.x.
Guo, C., Tomson, G., Guo, J., Li, X., Keller, C., & Söderqvist, F. (2015). Psychometric evaluation of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) in Chinese adolescents - a methodological study. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 13(1), 198. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-015-0394-2.
Hansen, C. D., & Andersen, J. H. (2008). Going ill to work–what personal circumstances, attitudes and work-related factors are associated with sickness presenteeism? Social Science & Medicine, 67(6), 956–964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.05.022.
Herrman, H., Saxena, S., & Moodie, R. (2004). Promoting mental Health: Concepts, Emerging Evidence, Practice. PsycEXTRA Dataset. https://doi.org/10.1037/e538802013-009.
Hides, L., Quinn, C., Stoyanov, S., Cockshaw, W., Mitchell, T., & Kavanagh, D. J. (2016). Is the mental wellbeing of young Australians best represented by a single, multidimensional or bifactor model? Psychiatry Research, 241, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.04.077.
James, G., Witten, D., Hastie, T., & Tibshirani, R. (2013). An introduction to statistical learning: With applications in R. New York: Springer-Verlag https://www.springer.com/us/book/9781461471370.
Johns, G. (2008). Absenteeism and Presenteeism: Not at work or not working well. In J. Barling & C. L. Cary (Éd.), The SAGE handbook of organizational behavior: Volume I - micro approaches (p. 160–177). London: SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849200448.
Joshanloo, M. (2016a). A new look at the factor structure of the MHC-SF in Iran and the United States using exploratory structural equation modeling. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 72(7), 701–713. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22287.
Joshanloo, M. (2016b). Revisiting the empirical distinction between hedonic and eudaimonic aspects of well-being using exploratory structural equation modeling. Journal of Happiness Studies, 17(5), 2023–2036. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-015-9683-z.
Joshanloo, M., & Jovanović, V. (2016). The factor structure of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) in Serbia: An evaluation using exploratory structural equation modeling. Journal of Mental Health, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2016.1222058.
Joshanloo, M., & Lamers, S. M. (2016). Reinvestigation of the factor structure of the MHC-SF in the Netherlands: Contributions of exploratory structural equation modeling. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 8–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.02.089.
Joshanloo, M., & Niknam, S. (2017). The tripartite model of mental well-being in Iran: Factorial and discriminant validity. Current Psychology, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9595-7.
Joshanloo, M., Jose, P. E., & Kielpikowski, M. (2016). The value of exploratory structural equation modeling in identifying factor overlap in the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF): A study with a New Zealand sample. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9767-4.
Jovanović, V. (2015). Structural validity of the mental health continuum-short form: The bifactor model of emotional, social and psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, 154–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.11.026.
Kahneman, D., Diener, E., & Schwarz, N. (2003). Well-being: Foundations of hedonic psychology. Russell Sage Foundation. https://www.russellsage.org/publications/well-being-1.
Kendler, K. S., Myers, J. M., Maes, H. H., & Keyes, C. L. (2011). The relationship between the genetic and environmental influences on common internalizing psychiatric disorders and mental well-being. Behavior Genetics, 41(5), 641–650. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-011-9466-1.
Keyes, C. L. M. (1998). Social well-being. Social Psychology Quarterly, 121–140. https://doi.org/10.2307/2787065.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(2), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090197.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2005). Mental illness and/or mental health? Investigating axioms of the complete state model of health. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(3), 539–548. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.73.3.539.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2007). Promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing: A complementary strategy for improving national mental health. American Psychologist, 62(2), 95–108. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.2.95.
Keyes, C. L., & Simoes, E. J. (2012). To flourish or not: Mental health and all-cause mortality. American Journal of Public Health, 102(11), 2164–2172. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2012.300918.
Keyes, C. L., Shmotkin, D., & Ryff, C. D. (2002). Optimizing well-being: The empirical encounter of two traditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 1007. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.1007.
Keyes, C. L., Wissing, M., Potgieter, J. P., Temane, M., Kruger, A., & van Rooy, S. (2008). Evaluation of the mental health continuum–short form (MHC–SF) in setswana-speaking south Africans. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 15(3), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.572.
Keyes, C. L., Michalec, B., Scheid, T. L., & Brown, T. N. (2010). Viewing mental health from the complete state paradigm. In A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health (p. 125-134). Consulté à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511984945.010.
Keyes, C. L., Martin, C. C., Slade, M., & Martin, C. C. (2017). The complete state model. In Wellbeing, Recovery and Mental Health (p. 75-85). Cambridge University press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316339275.009.
Kim, H., & Stoner, M. (2008). Burnout and turnover intention among social workers: Effects of role stress, job autonomy and social support. Administration in Social Work, 32(3), 5–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/03643100801922357.
Kuhn, M., Contributions from Wing, J., Weston, S., Williams, A., Keefer, C., Engelhardt, A., Cooper, T., Mayer, Z., Kenkel, B., the R Core Team, Benesty, M., Lescarbeau, R., Ziem, A., Scrucca, L., Tang, Y., Candan, C., & Tyler Hunt. (2018). Caret: Classification and regression training. R package version 6.0–80. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=caret
Leka, S., Cox, T., & Zwetsloot, G. (2008). The European framework for psychosocial risk management. PRIMA-EF. I-WHO Publications, Nottingham. http://www.prima-ef.org/prima-ef-book.html
Leka, S., Jain, A., Zwetsloot, G., & Cox, T. (2010). Policy-level interventions and work-related psychosocial risk management in the European Union. Work and Stress, 24(3), 298–307. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2010.519918.
Lo, Y., Mendell, N. R., & Rubin, D. B. (2001). Testing the number of components in a normal mixture. Biometrika, 88(3), 767–778. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/88.3.767.
Longo, Y., Jovanović, V., Sampaio de Carvalho, J., & Karaś, D. (2017). The general factor of well-being: Multinational evidence using Bifactor ESEM on the mental health continuum-short form. Assessment, 1073191117748394. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191117748394.
MacKay, C. J., MacKay, C. J., Cousins, R., Kelly, P. J., Lee, S., & McCaig, R. H. (2004). ‘Management standards’ and work-related stress in the UK: Policy background and science. Work and Stress, 18(2), 91–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370410001727474.
Marsh, H. W., Muthén, B., Asparouhov, T., Lüdtke, O., Robitzsch, A., Morin, A. J. S., & Trautwein, U. (2009). Exploratory structural equation modeling, integrating CFA and EFA: Application to students’ evaluations of university teaching. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 16(3), 439–476. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510903008220.
Marsh, H. W., Morin, A. J., Parker, P. D., & Kaur, G. (2014). Exploratory structural equation modeling: An integration of the best features of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 10, 85–110. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032813-153700.
McDonald, R. P. (1970). The theoretical foundations of principal factor analysis, canonical factor analysis, and alpha factor analysis. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 23(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1970.tb00432.x.
McLachlan, G. J. (1987). On bootstrapping the likelihood ratio test Stastistic for the number of components in a Normal mixture. Applied Statistics, 36(3), 318. https://doi.org/10.2307/2347790.
McLachlan, G., & Peel, D. (2000). Finite mixture models. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/0471721182.
McLachlan, G., & Peel, D. (2005). Mixtures of factor analyzers. Finite Mixture Models, 238–256. https://doi.org/10.1002/0471721182.ch8.
Morin, A. J., Arens, A. K., & Marsh, H. W. (2016). A bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling framework for the identification of distinct sources of construct-relevant psychometric multidimensionality. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 23(1), 116–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.961800.
Morin, A. J. S., Boudrias, J.-S., Marsh, H. W., McInerney, D. M., Dagenais-Desmarais, V., Madore, I., & Litalien, D. (2017). Complementary variable- and person-centered approaches to the dimensionality of psychometric constructs: Application to psychological wellbeing at work. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(4), 395–419. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-016-9448-7.
Morin, A. J. S., Myers, N. D., & Lee, S. (in Press). Modern factor analytic techniques: Bifactor models, exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and bifactor-ESEM. In G. Tenenbaum & R. C. Eklund (Éd.), Handbook of Sport Psychology 4 th Edition (Wiley).
Muthén, B. (2004). Latent variable analysis. The Sage handbook of quantitative methodology for the social sciences, 345, 368. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412986311.n19.
Muthén, B. O., & Muthén, L. K. (2012). Mplus User’s Guide (Muthén & Muthén, Vol. 7th Edition). Los Angeles , CA: 1998–2012.
O’Leary-Kelly, S. (1998). The empirical assessment of construct validity. Journal of Operations Management, 16(4), 387–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-6963(98)00020-5.
Petrillo, G., Capone, V., Caso, D., & Keyes, C. L. (2015). The mental health continuum–short form (MHC–SF) as a measure of well-being in the Italian context. Social Indicators Research, 121(1), 291–312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0629-3.
R Core Team (2018). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for statistical computing, Vienna, Austria. URL https://www.R-project.org/. Accessed 5 Oct 2018.
Reise, S. P. (2012). The rediscovery of bifactor measurement models. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 47(5), 667–696. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2012.715555.
Rodriguez, A., Reise, S. P., & Haviland, M. G. (2016). Evaluating bifactor models: Calculating and interpreting statistical indices. Psychological Methods, 21(2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000045.
Rogoza, R., Truong Thi, K. H., Różycka-Tran, J., Piotrowski, J., & Żemojtel-Piotrowska, M. (2018). Psychometric properties of the MHC-SF: An integration of the existing measurement approaches. Journal of Clinical Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22626.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141–166. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069.
Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. H. (2006). Know thyself and become what you are: A Eudaimonic approach to psychological well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(1), 13–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-006-9019-0.
Sánchez-Oliva, D., Morin, A. J. S., Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Palmeira, A. L., & Silva, M. N. (2017). A bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling representation of the structure of the basic psychological needs at work scale. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 98, 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.12.001.
Schutte, L., & Wissing, M. P. (2017). Clarifying the factor structure of the mental health continuum short form in three Languages: A Bifactor Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Society and Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156869317707793.
Sijtsma, K. (2009). On the use, the misuse, and the very limited usefulness of Cronbach’s alpha. Psychometrika, 74(1), 107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-008-9101-0.
Silverman, A. L., Forgeard, M., Beard, C., & Björgvinsson, T. (2018). Psychometric properties of the mental health continuum – Short form in a psychiatric sample. Journal of Well-Being Assessment, 2(1), 57–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41543-018-0011-3.
Siu, O. L., Cheung, F., & Lui, S. (2014). Linking positive emotions to work well-being and turnover intention among Hong Kong police officers: The role of psychological capital. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(2), 367–380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9513-8.
SPSS Inc. (2012). IBM SPSS statistics for windows (version 21). NY.
Strümpfer, D. J. W., Hardy, A., de Villiers, J. S., & Rigby, S. (2009). Organisationally relevant variables and Keyes’s mental health continuum scale: An exploratory study. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 35(1), 165–171. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.763.
Terry, T., & Atkinson, B. (2018). Rpart: Recursive partitioning and regression trees. R package version, 4, 1–13 https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rpart.
Tett, R. P., & Meyer, J. P. (2006). Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: Path analyses based on meta-analytic findings. Personnel Psychology, 46(2), 259–293. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x.
Trochim, W., Donnelly, J. P., & Arora, K. (2015). Research methods: The essential Knowledge Base (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Publishing http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/index.php.
Therneau, T., Atkinson, B., & Ripley, B. (2018). rpart: Recursive Partitioning and Regression Trees. R package version 4.1-13. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rpart. Accessed 5 Oct 2018.
Voorhees, C. M., Brady, M. K., Calantone, R., & Ramirez, E. (2016). Discriminant validity testing in marketing: An analysis, causes for concern, and proposed remedies. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 44(1), 119–134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-015-0455-4.
Vuong, Q. H. (1989). Likelihood ratio tests for model selection and non-nested hypotheses. Econometrica, 57(2), 307. https://doi.org/10.2307/1912557.
Wang, J., & Wang, X. (2012). Structural equation modeling: Applications using Mplus. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118356258.
Wetzel, E., Leckelt, M., Gerlach, T. M., & Back, M. D. (2016). Distinguishing subgroups of narcissists with latent class analysis. European Journal of Personality, 30(4), 374–389. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2062.
Żemojtel-Piotrowska, M., Piotrowski, J. P., Osin, E. N., Cieciuch, J., Adams, B. G., Ardi, R., & Maltby, J. (2018). The mental health continuum-short form: The structure and application for cross-cultural studies - a 38 nation study. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74(6), 1034–1052. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22570.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 34 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jaotombo, F. Study of the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF) amongst French Workers: a Combined Variable- and Person-Centered Approach. J well-being assess 3, 97–121 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41543-019-00022-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41543-019-00022-z