Psychometric performance of the WHO-5 Well-Being Index among high school students

Abstract

Background. The Well-being Index (WHO-5) is an instrument to measure general well-being or depressive symptoms in different contexts and populations. However, the psychometric performance of the instruments needs periodic review. Objective. To review some WHO-5 psychometric performance indicators, dimensionality, and internal consistency, in school adolescents from Santa Marta, Colombia. A methodological study was designed in which 1,462 tenth and eleventh-grade students from official and private schools participated, who completed the WHO-5. Students between 13 and 17 years old (M = 16.0, SD = 0.8), 60.3% female, and 55.3% from the tenth grade were included. Internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega coefficients, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out to corroborate dimensionality. Internal consistency showed McDonald's alpha and omega values ​​of 0.82. In the CFA, the one-dimensional structure of the WHO-5 was corroborated by observing indicators of goodness of fit within the expected parameters (chi-square = 34.41, df = 5, p = 0.001, RMSEA = 0.063 (90%CI 0.044-0.084), CFI = 0.988, TLI = 0.975 and SRMR = 0.018). The WHO-5 shows high internal consistency and a one-dimensional structure to explore the general well-being of in-school adolescents. These findings need to be corroborated in populations with other demographic characteristics.