Validity and Reliability of a Mental Health Recovery Checklist for Young Adults

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the internal consistency and construct validity of a self-report checklist measuring clinical mental health recovery across six key domains: family and relationships, occupation and school, physical health, mental health, spirituality, and social support systems. The Mental Health Recovery Checklist (MHRC) was developed at The Dorm, an intensive outpatient mental health treatment program for young adults in New York, NY, and Washington DC that services individuals between the ages of 18 and 35 years old. The present study is cross-sectional, as data were pulled from clients' records who were discharged between January 2018 and May 2023. Pearson Correlations and Cronbach's alpha were used to determine scale reliability. To establish validity, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to assess a single-factor model using Principal Axis Factoring. Cronbach's alpha was high (alpha = 0.88), indicating good reliability. In the EFA, all items loaded strongly on a single factor. The unidimensional structure revealed in the EFA highlights the interconnected nature of various life domains as they pertain to mental health recovery in young adults. Future research is warranted to explore whether there are additional dimensions of mental health recovery that have not been assessed in the present scale.