Abstract
Psychological health in adult populations has been conceptualized as being comprised of two distinct, though related, dimensions: well-being and distress. Research into adolescent psychological health, however, has been dominated by a single factor approach with well-being and distress defining opposite ends of this continuum. Measures of psychological health were administered to 345 late adolescents. A series of confirmatory factor analyses supported an oblique two-factor model of psychological health with measures of anxiety and negative affect defining a distress construct and measures of positive affect, satisfaction with life, and happiness defining a well-being construct. A measure of depression loaded on both well-being and distress. It is concluded that although these two dimensions are highly correlated, they are distinguishable in adolescent samples. It is suggested that to avoid confusion in the literature authors should take more care in labeling the aspects of psychological health that they wish to assess.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Andrews, F. M., and Withey, S. B. (1976). Social Indicators of Well-Being. Plenum, New York.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). Author, Washington, DC.
Armsden, G. C., and Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. J. Youth Adolesc. 16: 427–454.
Barth, R. P., Schinke, S.P., and Maxwell, J.S. (1983). Psychological correlates of teenage motherhood. J. Youth Adolesc. 12: 471–487.
Beiser, M. (1974). Components and correlates of mental well-being. J. Health Social Behav. 15: 320–327.
Bentler, P. M., and Chou, C. P. (1992). Some new covariance structure model improvement statistics. Sociol. Methods Res. 21: 259–282.
Blascovich, J., and Tomaka, J. (1991). Measures of self-esteem. In Robinson, J. P., Shaver, P. R., and Wrightsman, L. S. (eds.), Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes (Vol. 1). Academic Press, San Diego, CA.
Bollen, K. A., and Long, J. S. (1992). Tests for structural equation models. Sociol. Methods Res. 21: 123–131.
Bradburn, N. M. (1969). The Structure of Psychological Well-Being. Aldine, Chicago.
Burke, R. J., and Weir, T. (1978). Benefits to adolescents of informal helping relationships with their parents and peers. Psychol. Reports 42: 1175–1184.
Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., and Rodgers, W. L. (1976). The Quality of American Life. Sage, New York.
Cole, D. A. (1987). Utility of confirmatory factor analysis in test validation research. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 55: 584–594.
Cooke, D. J. (1980). The structure of depression found in the general population. Psychol. Med. 10: 455–463.
Crandall, R. (1973). The measurement of self-esteem and related constructs. In Robinson, J. P., and Shaver, P. R. (eds.), Measures of Social Psychological Attitudes. Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, MI.
D'Arcy, C., and Siddique, C. M. (1984). Psychological distress among Canadian adolescents. Psychol. Med. 14: 615–628.
Diener, E., Emmons, A., Larsen, R. J., and Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale: A measure of life satisfaction. J. Personal. Assess. 49: 71–75.
Diener, E., and Larsen, R. J. (1984). Temporal stability and cross-situational consistency of affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses. J. Personal. Social Psychol. 47: 871–883.
Goldberg, D. P. (1972). The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire: A Technique for the Identification and Assessment of Non-Psychotic Psychiatric Illness. Oxford University Press, London.
Graziano, W. G., and Ward, D. (1992). Probing the Big Five in adolescence: Personality and adjustment during a developmental transition. J. Personal. 60: 425–435.
Greenberg, M., Seigal, J., and Leitch, C. (1984). The nature and importance of attachment relationships to parents and peers during adolescence. J. Youth Adolesc. 12: 373–386.
Heady, B., and Wearing, A. (1992). Understanding Happiness: A Theory of Subjective Well-Being. Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.
Henderson, S., Burn, D. G., and Duncan-Jones, P. (1981). Neurosis and the Social Environment. Academic Press, Sydney.
John, O. P., Caspi, A., Robins, R. W., Moffitt, T. E., Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1994). The “Little Five”: Exploring the nomological network of the five-factor model of personality in adolescent boys. Child Develop. 65: 160–178.
Jöreskog, K. G., and Sörbom, D. (1990). LISREL 7: A Guide to the Program and Applications (2nd ed.), SPSS, Inc., Chicago.
Jöreskog, K. G., and Sörbom, D. (1993a). PRELIS 2 (Version 2.12A). Scientific Software, Inc., Chicago, IL.
Jöreskog, K. G., and Sörbom, D. (1993b). LISREL 8 (Version 8.12A). Scientific Software, Inc., Chicago, IL.
Larsen, R. J., Diener, E., and Emmons, R. A. (1985). An evaluation of subjective well-being measures. Social Indic. Res. 17: 1–18.
Mechanic, D., and Hansell, S. (1987). Adolescent competence, psychological well-being, and self-assessed physical health. J. Health Social Behav. 28: 364–374.
Neto, F. (1993). The Satisfaction with Life Scale: Psychometric properties in an adolescent sample. J. Youth Adolesc. 22: 125–134.
Norris, R., Carroll, D., and Cochrane, R. (1992). The effects of physical activity and exercise training on psychological stress and well-being in an adolescent population. J. Psychosom. Res. 36: 55–65.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. App. Psychol. Meas. 1: 385–401.
Raja, S. N., McGee, R., and Stanton, W. R. (1992). Perceived attachments to parents and peers and psychological well-being in adolescence. J. Youth Adolesc. 21: 471–485.
Roberts, R. E., Andrews, J. A., Lewinsohn, P. M., and Hops, H. (1990). Assessment of depression in adolescents using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Psychol. Assess. 2: 122–128.
Shek, D. T. (1989). Perceptions of parental treatment styles and psychological well-being in Chinese adolescents. J. Genetic Psychol. 150: 403–415.
Speilberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., and Luchene, R. E. (1970). The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) Test Manual for Form Y. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA.
Tabachnick, B. G., and Fidell, L. S. (1996). Using Multivariate Statistics (3rd. ed.). Harper Collins, New York.
Tennen, H., and Herzberger, S. (1987). Depression, self-esteem, and the absence of attributional biases. J. Personal. Social Psychol. 52: 72–80.
Veit, C. T., and Ware, J. E. (1983). The structure of psychological distress and well-being in general populations. J. Consult. Clinical Psychol. 51: 730–742.
Warr, P., Banks, M., and Ullah, P. (1985). The experience of unemployment among black and white urban teenagers. Brit. J. Psychol. 76: 75–87.
Watson, D., and Clark, L. A. (1991). Self-versus peer ratings of specific emotional traits: Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. J. Person. Social Psychol. 60: 927–940.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., and Carey, G. (1988a). Positive and negative affectivity and their relation to anxiety and depressive disorders. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 97: 346–353.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., and Tellegen, A. (1988b). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. J. Person. Social Psychol. 54: 1063–1070.
Wilkinson, R. B. (1995a). Changes in psychological health and the marital relationship through childbearing: Transition or process as stressor? Australian J. Psychol. 47: 86–92.
Wilkinson, R. B. (1995b). Psychological Adjustment in Childbearing Couples: The Application of a General Model of Psychological Health. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Australian National University, Canberra, The Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Wilson, W. (1967). Correlates of avowed happiness. Psychol. Bull. 67: 294–306.
Windle, M. (1989). Predicting temperament-mental health relationships: A covariance structure latent variable analysis. J. Res. Personal. 23: 118–144.
Winefield, A. H., and Tiggemann, M. (1990). Length of unemployment and psychological distress: Longitudinal and cross-sectional data. Social Sci. Med. 31: 461–465.
Winefield, A. H., Tiggemann, M., and Winefield, H. R. (1991). The psychological impact of unemployment and unsatisfactory employment in young men and women: Longitudinal and cross-sectional data. Br. J. Psychol. 82: 473–486.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wilkinson, R.B., Walford, W.A. The Measurement of Adolescent Psychological Health: One or Two Dimensions?. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 27, 443–455 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022848001938
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022848001938