MHC-SF
Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (MHC-SF)
Flourishing-Languishing Scale
Measuring: Emotional, social well-being, and psychological well-being.
Number of Items: 14
| Item | Question Wording | TILDA Variable |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Happy. | SCQFlourLang1 |
| 2 | Interested in life | SCQFlourLang2 |
| 3 | Satisfied with life | SCQFlourLang3 |
| 4 | That you had something important to contribute to society. | SCQFlourLang4 |
| 5 | That you belonged to a community like a social group, your school, or your neighbourhood. | SCQFlourLang5 |
| 6 | That our society is becoming a better place. | SCQFlourLang6 |
| 7 | That people are basically good. | SCQFlourLang7 |
| 8 | That the way our society works made sense to you. | SCQFlourLang8 |
| 9 | Good at managing the responsibilities of your daily life. | SCQFlourLang9 |
| 10 | That you have warm and trusting relationships with other people. | SCQFlourLang10 |
| 11 | That you have experiences that challenged you to grow or become a better person. | SCQFlourLang11 |
| 12 | Confident to think or express your own ideas and opinions. | SCQFlourLang12 |
| 13 | That you liked your personality. | SCQFlourLang13 |
| 14 | That your life had a direction or purpose. | SCQFlourLang14 |
Scoring Method:
Items scored on a 6-point Likert scale.
0 = never
1 = Once or Twice
2 = About once a week
3 = Two or three times a week
4 = Almost Every Day
5 = Every Day
A cumulative score is generated with higher scores representing greater positive mental health (0-70).
There are 3 subscales generated from this scale;
Emotional well-being (Item 1- Item 3)
Social well-being (Item 4 - Item 8)
Psychological well-being (Item 9 - Item 14)
- Scores are summed within each Mental Health Continuum – Short Form subscale: Emotional well-being (0–15), social well-being (0-25), and psychological well-being (0–30). Higher scores indicate greater perceived well-being within that domain.
Flourishing and languishing classification:
The MHC-SF can also be scored using Keyes' diagnostic criteria rather than a total score.
Flourishing
A participant is classified as flourishing if they report:
"Every day" or "Almost every day" on at least one of the three emotional well-being items, and
"Every day" or "Almost every day" on at least six of the eleven social and psychological well-being items.
Languishing
A participant is classified as languishing if they report:
"Never" or "Once or twice" on at least one emotional well-being item, and
"Never" or "Once or twice" on at least six of the social and psychological well-being items.
Participants who meet neither flourishing nor languishing criteria are classified as having moderate mental health.
Citation: Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(2), 207–222. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12096700/
Code
mvdecode (FlourLang1 FlourLang2 FlourLang3 FlourLang4 FlourLang5 FlourLang6 FlourLang7 FlourLang8 FlourLang9 FlourLang10 FlourLang11 FlourLang12 FlourLang13 FlourLang14), mv (-99=. \ -812=. \ -823=. \ -834 = . \ -845=. \ -856=. \ -867 = . \ -1=.)
foreach var in FlourLang1 FlourLang2 FlourLang3 FlourLang4 FlourLang5 FlourLang6 FlourLang7 FlourLang8 FlourLang9 FlourLang10 FlourLang11 FlourLang12 FlourLang13 FlourLang14 {
gen `var'_recoded = `var' -1
}
egen FLFlourishLangTotal = rowtotal (FlourLang1_recoded FlourLang2_recoded FlourLang3_recoded FlourLang4_recoded FlourLang5_recoded FlourLang6_recoded FlourLang7_recoded FlourLang8_recoded FlourLang9_recoded FlourLang10_recoded FlourLang11_recoded FlourLang12_recoded FlourLang13_recoded FlourLang14_recoded)
egen FLEmotionalWellbeing = rowtotal (FlourLang1_recoded FlourLang2_recoded FlourLang3_recoded)
egen FLSocialWellbeing = rowtotal (FlourLang4_recoded FlourLang5_recoded FlourLang6_recoded FlourLang7_recoded FlourLang8_recoded)
egen FLPsychologicalWellbeing = rowtotal (FlourLang9_recoded FlourLang10_recoded FlourLang11_recoded FlourLang12_recoded FlourLang13_recoded FlourLang14_recoded)
*Score should be between 0-70
codebook FLFlourishLangTotal
fre FLFlourishLangTotal
*Score should be between 0-15
codebook FLEmotionalWellbeing
fre FLEmotionalWellbeing
*Score should be between 0-30
codebook FLPsychologicalWellbeing
fre FLPsychologicalWellbeing
*Score should be between 0-25
codebook FLSocialWellbeing
fre FLSocialWellbeing
lab var FLFlourishLangTotal "Total Scores of the Flourishing-Languishing Scale"
lab var FLEmotionalWellbeing "Scores of Emotion factor of Flourishing-Languishing Scale"
lab var FLPsychologicalWellbeing "Scores of Psychological Factor of Flourishing-Languishing scale"
lab var FLSocialWellbeing "Scores of Social factor of Flourishing-Languishing scale"fl_items <- paste0("FlourLang", 1:14)
special_missing <- c(-99, -812, -823, -834, -845, -856, -867, -1)
for (v in fl_items) {
data[[v]][data[[v]] %in% special_missing] <- NA_real_
data[[paste0(v, "_recoded")]] <- data[[v]] - 1
}
rec <- paste0(fl_items, "_recoded")
# Stata egen rowtotal() ignores missing components and returns 0 if all are missing.
data$FLFlourishLangTotal <- rowSums(data[rec], na.rm = TRUE)
data$FLEmotionalWellbeing <- rowSums(data[rec[1:3]], na.rm = TRUE)
data$FLSocialWellbeing <- rowSums(data[rec[4:8]], na.rm = TRUE)
data$FLPsychologicalWellbeing <- rowSums(data[rec[9:14]], na.rm = TRUE)
attr(data$FLFlourishLangTotal, "label") <-
"Total Scores of the Flourishing-Languishing Scale"
attr(data$FLEmotionalWellbeing, "label") <-
"Scores of Emotion factor of Flourishing-Languishing Scale"
attr(data$FLPsychologicalWellbeing, "label") <-
"Scores of Psychological Factor of Flourishing-Languishing scale"
attr(data$FLSocialWellbeing, "label") <-
"Scores of Social factor of Flourishing-Languishing scale"
summary(data$FLFlourishLangTotal)
summary(data$FLEmotionalWellbeing)
summary(data$FLPsychologicalWellbeing)
summary(data$FLSocialWellbeing)RECODE FlourLang1 FlourLang2 FlourLang3 FlourLang4 FlourLang5 FlourLang6 FlourLang7 FlourLang8 FlourLang9 FlourLang10 FlourLang11 FlourLang12 FlourLang13 FlourLang14
(-99=SYSMIS) (-812=SYSMIS) (-823=SYSMIS) (-834=SYSMIS)
(-845=SYSMIS) (-856=SYSMIS) (-867=SYSMIS) (-1=SYSMIS).
DO REPEAT src = FlourLang1 FlourLang2 FlourLang3 FlourLang4 FlourLang5 FlourLang6 FlourLang7 FlourLang8 FlourLang9 FlourLang10 FlourLang11 FlourLang12 FlourLang13 FlourLang14
/dst = FlourLang1_recoded FlourLang2_recoded FlourLang3_recoded FlourLang4_recoded FlourLang5_recoded FlourLang6_recoded FlourLang7_recoded FlourLang8_recoded FlourLang9_recoded FlourLang10_recoded FlourLang11_recoded FlourLang12_recoded FlourLang13_recoded FlourLang14_recoded.
COMPUTE dst = src - 1.
END REPEAT.
COMPUTE FLFlourishLangTotal = SUM(FlourLang1_recoded, FlourLang2_recoded, FlourLang3_recoded, FlourLang4_recoded, FlourLang5_recoded, FlourLang6_recoded, FlourLang7_recoded, FlourLang8_recoded, FlourLang9_recoded, FlourLang10_recoded, FlourLang11_recoded, FlourLang12_recoded, FlourLang13_recoded, FlourLang14_recoded).
IF (NMISS(FlourLang1_recoded, FlourLang2_recoded, FlourLang3_recoded, FlourLang4_recoded, FlourLang5_recoded, FlourLang6_recoded, FlourLang7_recoded, FlourLang8_recoded, FlourLang9_recoded, FlourLang10_recoded, FlourLang11_recoded, FlourLang12_recoded, FlourLang13_recoded, FlourLang14_recoded) = 14)
FLFlourishLangTotal = 0.
COMPUTE FLEmotionalWellbeing =
SUM(FlourLang1_recoded, FlourLang2_recoded, FlourLang3_recoded).
IF (NMISS(FlourLang1_recoded, FlourLang2_recoded, FlourLang3_recoded) = 3)
FLEmotionalWellbeing = 0.
COMPUTE FLSocialWellbeing =
SUM(FlourLang4_recoded, FlourLang5_recoded, FlourLang6_recoded,
FlourLang7_recoded, FlourLang8_recoded).
IF (NMISS(FlourLang4_recoded, FlourLang5_recoded, FlourLang6_recoded,
FlourLang7_recoded, FlourLang8_recoded) = 5)
FLSocialWellbeing = 0.
COMPUTE FLPsychologicalWellbeing =
SUM(FlourLang9_recoded, FlourLang10_recoded, FlourLang11_recoded,
FlourLang12_recoded, FlourLang13_recoded, FlourLang14_recoded).
IF (NMISS(FlourLang9_recoded, FlourLang10_recoded, FlourLang11_recoded,
FlourLang12_recoded, FlourLang13_recoded, FlourLang14_recoded) = 6)
FLPsychologicalWellbeing = 0.
VARIABLE LABELS
FLFlourishLangTotal "Total Scores of the Flourishing-Languishing Scale"
FLEmotionalWellbeing "Scores of Emotion factor of Flourishing-Languishing Scale"
FLPsychologicalWellbeing "Scores of Psychological Factor of Flourishing-Languishing scale"
FLSocialWellbeing "Scores of Social factor of Flourishing-Languishing scale".
DESCRIPTIVES VARIABLES=
FLFlourishLangTotal FLEmotionalWellbeing
FLPsychologicalWellbeing FLSocialWellbeing.
EXECUTE.