Incorporating wellbeing into general factor models: A more complete mental state?

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Research
• Adolescent Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• General factor models are widely used to understand mental health.
• Existing models often focus on psychopathology, potentially overlooking wellbeing.
• Adolescent mental health is a critical area for research and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of integrating wellbeing into general factor models of mental health.
• To determine the utility of such a model in predicting future functional impairment in adolescents.
• To explore nuanced representations of mental health states.

Main Methods:

• Utilized longitudinal data from 15,258 adolescents in England (Year 7 and Year 9).
• Employed structural equation modeling to test latent variable models incorporating psychopathology and wellbeing.
• Assessed the predictive power of identified latent factors on functional impairment at Year 9.

Main Results:

• A general factor model including a shared dimension between psychopathology and wellbeing demonstrated good data fit.
• Models with wellbeing showed superior fit compared to those without when predicting future impairment.
• The proposed model met all required fit thresholds for predictive utility.

Conclusions:

• Integrating wellbeing into general factor models enhances the representation of mental health states.
• This enhanced model shows potential utility in predicting future functional outcomes.
• Further validation with comprehensive measures and comparative analyses is recommended.