The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) in the Argentinean Context: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Measurement Invariance.

The present research aimed at studying the psychometric properties of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF; Keyes, 2005) in a sample of 1,300 Argentinean adults (50% males; 50% females). Their mean age was 40.28 years old (SD = 13.

Investigating the Goldilocks Hypothesis: The Non-Linear Impact of Positive Trait Change on Well-Being.

This paper attempts to reconcile two perspectives on the impact of positive trait change. The first perspective views positive trait change as salubrious because it reflects the process of self-enhancement, whereas the second perspective views positive change as costly because it disrupts the self-verification process. We propose that benefits and costs accrue at discrete rates, such that moderate positive trait change is more beneficial than too little and too much positive change.

To flourish or not: positive mental health and all-cause mortality.

Objectives: We investigated whether positive mental health predicts all-cause mortality.

Methods: Data were from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study (n = 3032), which at baseline in 1995 measured positive mental health (flourishing and not) and past-year mental illness (major depressive episode, panic attacks, and generalized anxiety disorders), and linked respondents with National Death Index records in a 10-year follow-up ending in 2005. Covariates were age, gender, race, education, any past-year mental illness, smoking, physical inactivity, physical diseases, and physical disease risk factors.

A multidimensional perspective of the mental health of preclinical medical students.

Previous research on medical students' mental health has focused almost exclusively on students' emotional well-being and/or their personal psychological functioning, neglecting the more public side of medical training - the students' social health. A total of 237 preclinical students completed surveys at the beginning and the end of their academic year assessing their emotional, psychological, and social well-being, respectively, as well as the overall negative impact medical school stressors had on their lives. Although first and second year students were found to significantly decrease in emotional well-being, first year students were found to increase in social well-being, with further analysis showing an increase among first year students specifically in the feelings of social integration and social acceptance.

The relationship between the genetic and environmental influences on common externalizing psychopathology and mental wellbeing.

To determine the relationship between the genetic and environmental risk factors for externalizing psychopathology and mental wellbeing, we examined detailed measures of emotional, social and psychological wellbeing, and a history of alcohol-related problems and smoking behavior in the last year in 1,386 individual twins from same-sex pairs from the MIDUS national US sample assessed in 1995. Cholesky decomposition analyses were performed withthe Mx program. The best fit model contained one highly heritable common externalizing psychopathology factor for both substance use/abuse measures, and one strongly heritable common factor for the three wellbeing measures.

Chronological and subjective age differences in flourishing mental health and major depressive episode.

Mental health is more than the absence of psychopathology, but few studies use positive mental health along with a measure of past year major depressive episode (MDE). This study addresses this gap by investigating the association of MDE and flourishing mental health (FMH) with chronological age and subjective (felt and ideal) age. Data are from the Midlife in the United States random digit dialing sample of adults ages 25 to 74, collected in 1995 (n = 3032).

The relationship between the genetic and environmental influences on common internalizing psychiatric disorders and mental well-being.

To determine the relationship between the genetic and environmental risk factors for common internalizing psychopathology (IP) and mental well-being (MWB), we examined detailed measures of emotional, social and psychological well-being, and a history of major depression (MD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic attacks in the last year, in 1,386 twins from same-sex pairs from the MIDUS national USA sample assessed in 1995 and then again in 2005. Statistical analyses were performed with the Mx program. In the 1995 data, the best fit model contained one substantially heritable common factor for MD, GAD and panic attacks, and one strongly heritable common factor for the three well-being measures.

Evaluating the psychometric properties of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF).

There is a growing consensus that mental health is not merely the absence of mental illness, but it also includes the presence of positive feelings (emotional well-being) and positive functioning in individual life (psychological well-being) and community life (social well-being). We examined the structure, reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF), a new self-report questionnaire for positive mental health assessment. We expected that the MHC-SF is reliable and valid, and that mental health and mental illness are 2 related but distinct continua.

Change in level of positive mental health as a predictor of future risk of mental illness.

Objectives: We sought to describe the prevalence of mental health and illness, the stability of both diagnoses over time, and whether changes in mental health level predicted mental illness in a cohort group.

Methods: In 2009, we analyzed data from the 1995 and 2005 Midlife in the United States cross-sectional surveys (n = 1723), which measured positive mental health and 12-month mental disorders of major depressive episode, panic, and generalized anxiety disorders.

Results: Population prevalence of any of 3 mental disorders and levels of mental health appeared stable but were dynamic at the individual level.

Changes in mental well-being in the transition to late life: findings from MIDUS I and II.

The number of adults aged 65 years and older is increasing rapidly, creating public health challenges. We used data from the 1995 and 2005 national surveys of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) to compare changes in mental well-being of participants (n = 1007) of 3 age cohorts (ages 45-54 years, 55-64 years, and 65-74 years in 1995). Older adults experienced a slight decline in mental well-being not seen among younger participants and not explained by demographic variables, physical ailments, mental illnesses, or chronic conditions.

The structure of the genetic and environmental influences on mental well-being.

Objectives: We sought to investigate the structure of the genetic and environmental influences on 3 measures of mental well-being.

Methods: Analyses focused on the subsample of 349 monozygotic and 321 dizygotic same-sex twin pairs from a nationally representative sample of twins who completed self-report measures of emotional, psychological, and social well-being.

Results: The best-fit model contained a common pathway to all 3 measures of well-being, no shared environmental effects, and 1 set of parameters for men and women.

Mental Illness and Mental Health: The Two Continua Model Across the Lifespan.

Mental health has long been defined as the absence of psychopathologies, such as depression and anxiety. The absence of mental illness, however, is a minimal outcome from a psychological perspective on lifespan development. This article therefore focuses on mental illness as well as on three core components of positive mental health: feelings of happiness and satisfaction with life (emotional well-being), positive individual functioning in terms of self-realization (psychological well-being), and positive societal functioning in terms of being of social value (social well-being).

The Black-White paradox in health: flourishing in the face of social inequality and discrimination.

This paper reviews published research and presents new analyses from the 1995 nationally representative sample from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study to investigate whether there is support for the paradox of race and health in the United States. Findings reveal that Blacks have lower rates of several common mental disorders, but Blacks also have higher rates of flourishing than Whites. Blacks are mentally resilient in the face of greater social inequality and exposure to discrimination as well as high rates of physical morbidity--all of which are distinctive risk factors for mental distress and mental illness in the general population.

Evaluation of the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) in setswana-speaking South Africans.

A continuous assessment and a categorical diagnosis of the presence of mental health, described as flourishing, and the absence of mental health, characterized as languishing, is applied to a random sample of 1050 Setswana-speaking adults in the Northwest province of South Africa. Factor analysis revealed that the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) replicated the three-factor structure of emotional, psychological and social well-being found in US samples. The internal reliability of the overall MHC-SF Scale was 0.

Promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing: a complementary strategy for improving national mental health.

This article summarizes the conception and diagnosis of the mental health continuum, the findings supporting the two continua model of mental health and illness, and the benefits of flourishing to individuals and society. Completely mentally healthy adults--individuals free of a 12-month mental disorder and flourishing--reported the fewest missed days of work, the fewest half-day or greater work cutbacks, the healthiest psychosocial functioning (i.e.

Mental health in adolescence: is America's youth flourishing?

A continuous assessment and a categorical diagnosis of the presence of mental health, described as flourishing, and the absence of mental health, characterized as languishing, are proposed and applied to data from the second wave of the Child Development Supplement (CDS-II) of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), in which a comprehensive set of subjective well-being items were administered to a sample of 1,234 youth ages 12-18. Flourishing was the most prevalent diagnosis among youth ages 12-14; moderate mental health was the most prevalent diagnosis among youth ages 15-18. Depressive symptoms decreased as mental health increased.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall: perceptions and consequences of stability and change among middle-aged and older East and West Germans.

Objectives: This study empirically tested the self-systems theory of subjective change in light of the rapid change after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The theory predicts that individuals have a tendency to perceive stability and that perceived stability exerts a strong positive effect on subjective well-being. We would expect perceptions of decline and, to a lesser extent, perceptions of improvement to be related to lower levels of subjective well-being.

Mental illness and/or mental health? Investigating axioms of the complete state model of health.

A continuous assessment and a categorical diagnosis of the presence (i.e., flourishing) and the absence (i.

Health as a complete state: the added value in work performance and healthcare costs.

Objective: Health is widely believed to be more than the absence of illness, yet no previous research has documented whether organizations would benefit if occupational health moved beyond an "absence of illness" model.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study were used to compare productivity outcomes and health care use among individuals in (1) complete ill health, (2) incomplete health, and (3) complete health.

Results: Across the outcomes, individuals characterized as being completely healthy reported the greatest productivity and the lowest health care use.

Toward health promotion: physical and social behaviors in complete health.

Objective: To examine the effects of physical and social behaviors on "complete health."

Methods: "Complete health" was constructed from measures of physical and mental health collected through the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS; n = 3032). Multinomial regression models examined the association of complete health with physical and social behaviors.

Status inequalities, perceived discrimination, and eudaimonic well-being: do the challenges of minority life hone purpose and growth?

Considerable prior research has investigated links between racial/ethnic status and diverse aspects of mental functioning (e.g. psychological disorders, quality of life, self-esteem), but little work has probed the connections between minority status and eudaimonic well-being.

Somatization and mental health: a comparative study of the idiom of distress hypothesis.

Somatization is the expression of physical symptoms in the absence of medically explained physical illness. As a disproportionate response to psychosocial distress, somatization is usually correlated with depression. According to the idiom of distress hypothesis, the association of somatization and mental health is mitigated when somatizing indirectly expresses, and is understood by others as, emotional distress.