Mental Health Continuum—Short Form: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of Competing Models with Adolescents from Portugal

The concept of positive mental health (PMH) and therefore mental wellbeing (MWB) have taken center stage over the last few decades. The Mental Health Continuum - Short Form (MHC-SF) is one of the most important tools for assessing mental well-being MWB. This study aims to assess the psychometric properties and dimen-sionality of the Portuguese version of the MHC-SF by comparing three competing models. Methods: In 2021, a survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 495 Portuguese adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, enrolled in 7th to 12th grades. Descriptive statistics and bivariate statistical tests and measures associated with Confirmatory Factor Analysis were calculated. Results: The results of the CFA support the idea that the bifactor model fits the data better than the other competing models. The indices support unidimensionality, namely the Explained Common Variance (ECV = 0.81), the Percentage of Uncontaminated Correlations (PUC = 0.69), and omega hierarchical (ωH=0.89), and point to the existence of a general MHC-SF factor. The scale showed high reliability (ω = 0.95) in the general factor. The MHC-SF has concurrent validity, correlating with other scales that assess aspects related to mental health and well-being. Conclusion: The results point to the adequacy of the bifactor model and suggest the existence of a general factor of PMH, which is why the total score of the scale can be used.