Reliability and Validity of Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale among Chinese Civil Servants

The purpose of this study was to explore the reliability and validity of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) among Chinese civil servants, thus establishing a useful tool for assessing the mental health of individuals in this occupation. The WEMWBS, Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) were administered to a sample of 2,624 civil servants (42.860 +/- 9.690 years) in a city located within Shandong Province, China. The findings revealed significant differences between groups with high and low scores on each item of the WEMWBS (t = 48.127- 78.308, all p < 0.01). The item-total correlation of WEMWBS ranged from 0.752 to 0.911 (all p < 0.01). Scree plot and parallel analysis results suggested a one-factor solution with factor loadings ranging from 0.762-0.918, accounting for 73.16% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a single-factor model of the Chinese version of the WEMWBS (CFI = 0.997, TLI = 0.996, RMSEA = 0.0330). The Chinese version of the WEMWBS was positively correlated with the SWLS (r = 0.710, both p < 0.01) and negatively correlated with depression, anxiety, stress, and total DASS-21 score (r = -0.512, -0.437, -0.488, -0.497, all p < 0.01). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient and Guttman split-half coefficient of the Chinese version of the WEMWBS were 0.970 and 0.953, respectively. In conclusion, the 14-item Chinese version of the WEMWBS demonstrated strong reliability and validity, establishing its utility as a precise tool for measuring and assessing the mental health status of civil servants in China.