Impact of positively- versus negatively-worded items on the factor structure of three psychological measures: W-BQ22, W-BQ12 & SF-36

Background: The 22-item Well-being Questionnaire (W-BQ22) (Bradley, 1994) includes Anxiety, Depression, Energy and Positive Well-being subscales. However, the constructs of anxiety and depression could not be easily distinguished from each other. Consequently, the W-BQ12 was designed to include just three subscales, Negative Well-being (including only negatively-worded anxiety and depression items), Energy (2 positively- and 2 negativelyworded items) and Positive Well-being (all positively-worded items). The SF-36 (Ware & Sherbourne, 1983), a widely used health status measure, includes a 4-item vitality subscale (2 positively- and 2 negatively-worded items) and a 5-item mental health scale (2 positively worded and 3 negatively-worded items).

Method: Factor structures of W-BQ22, W-BQ12 and SF-36 were compared using data from 789 outpatients with diabetes.

Results: W-BQ22 factor analysis showed negatively-worded anxiety and depression items loading together, while positively-worded depression items loaded with positive well-being items and separately from positively-worded anxiety items. W-BQ12 loaded as intended on 3 factors, with negatively-worded anxiety and depression items loading together on one factor: negative well-being. The four energy items (2 positively- and 2 negatively-worded) loaded together (factor 3) and the four positive well-being items loaded together (factor 1). Unforced factor analysis of the SF-36 produced 5 factors and split the mental health and vitality items into two components, which could only be defined in terms of positive and negative wording. A forced 8-factor solution produced similar results, with the mental health and vitality items being split into two components according to their positive or negative wording. A forced 2-factor solution brought mental health/vitality items together, separate from physical health items.

Conclusion: The previously unrecognised influence of positive and negative wording on factor structure is clearly shown here to be of importance in conceptualising and designing measures of psychological well-being to be used with people with diabetes and may be of relevance for other populations.

An investigation into the subjective wellbeing of people with an intellectual disability

This thesis investigated the theory of subjective wellbeing homeostatic control for a sample of New Zealand people with mild to moderate intellectual disability, compared to non-disabled people. This involved three linked quantitative studies that investigated the internal buffers of self-esteem, control and optimism.

Family day care educators : an exploration of their understanding and experiences promoting children's social and emotional wellbeing

This study aimed to explore family day care (FDC) educators’ knowledge of child social and emotional wellbeing and mental health problems, the strategies used to promote children’s wellbeing, and barriers and opportunities for promoting children’s social and emotional wellbeing. Thirteen FDC educators participated in individual semi-structured interviews. FDC educators were more comfortable defining children’s social and emotional wellbeing than they were in identifying causes and early signs of mental health problems. Strategies used to promote children’s mental health were largely informal and dependent on educator skills and capacities rather than a systematic scheme-wide approach. Common barriers to mental health promotion were limited financial resources, a need for more training and hesitance raising child mental health issues with parents. There is a need to build FDC educators’ knowledge of child social and emotional wellbeing and for tailored mental health promotion strategies in FDC.

Meehl's crud factor, subjective wellbeing and religiosity : a critique

Researchers in the area of subjective wellbeing are now building on a body of research that spans more than three decades and includes many thousands of articles. It is time to move from exploratory studies to those based on accumulated psychometric understanding and theory. Two aspects of the article by Abdel-Khalek (2011) warrant attention from this perspective: the choice of scale and the issue of shared variance.

Contextualising psychological distress among regular ecstasy users : the importance of sociodemographic factors and patterns of drug use

Introduction and Aims. Considerable concern has been raised about associations between ecstasy use and mental health. Studies of ecstasy users typically investigate varying levels of lifetime use of ecstasy, and often fail to account for other drug use and sociodemographic characteristics of participants, which may explain mixed findings. The current study aimed to examine the relationship between patterns of recent (last six months) ecstasy use and psychological distress among current, regular ecstasy users, controlling for sociodemographic risk factors and patterns of other drug use.

Design and Methods. Data were collected from regular ecstasy users (n = 752) recruited from each capital city in Australia as part of the Ecstasy and related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS). Psychological distress was assessed using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Data were analysed using multinomial logistic regression.

Results. Seven per cent of the sample scored in the ‘high’ distress category and 55% in the ‘medium’ distress category. Patterns of ecstasy use were not independently associated with psychological distress. The strongest predictors of distress were female sex, lower education, unemployment, ‘binge’ drug use including ecstasy (use for >48 h without sleep), frequent cannabis use and daily tobacco use.

Discussion and Conclusions. Regular ecstasy users have elevated levels of psychological distress compared with the general population; however, ecstasy use per se was not independently related to such distress. Other factors, including sociodemographic characteristics and other drug use patterns, appear to be more important. These findings highlight the importance of targeting patterns of polydrug use in order to reduce drug-related harm among regular ecstasy users