The Importance of Measuring Mental Wellbeing in the Context of Psychological Distress: Using a Theoretical Framework to Test the Dual-Continua Model of Mental Health.

Abstract

In total, 2065 participants (female n = 1193; 57.8%) completed two online assessments (minimum 30 days apart) measuring psychological distress, mental wellbeing, and demographic information. In total, 1.1% of participants experienced high distress as well as mental wellbeing confirming that psychological distress and mental wellbeing exist independently (Criterion 1). Bipolarity (Criterion 2) was partly disconfirmed: mental wellbeing consistently decreased as symptom severity increased for depression; however, anxiety and stress did not meet bipolarity requirements. Functional independence (Criterion 3) was established: longitudinal analysis found that participants reliably and simultaneously increased (2.7%) or decreased (4.2%) in distress and mental wellbeing, while cross-sectional analysis showed that psychological distress only explained 38% of the variance in mental wellbeing. Findings provide further support for the dual-continua model through analysis of the proposed assessment criteria, suggesting a further need to measure the dual-continua model at the subdomain level, e.g., depression, anxiety, and stress, as opposed to global psychological distress. Validation for the proposed assessment criteria provides important methodological foundations for future studies.