The psychometric properties of the Thai version of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale among university students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64838/jmht.2026.288245Keywords:
cross-cultural translation, mental well-being, psychometric properties, Thai undergraduate studentsAbstract
Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the cross-culturally adapted Thai version of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS-Thai) and its short form (SWEMWBS-Thai).
Methods: The Thai version had previously undergone cross-cultural translation and content validation. This study examined its psychometric properties among undergraduate students, including construct validity using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal consistency using McDonald’s omega coefficient and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and convergent validity using average variance extracted (AVE).
Results: A total of 387 participants with complete data were included in the analysis. The mean age was 20 years and 8 months, and 70.8% were female. CFA supported a unidimensional model of the WEMWBS-Thai after adding correlations between the error terms of three item pairs (CFI = 0.955, TLI = 0.944, RMSEA = 0.074, and SRMR = 0.034) and the SWEMWBS-Thai without further modification (CFI = 0.978, TLI = 0.967, RMSEA = 0.074, and SRMR = 0.025). Both versions demonstrated high internal consistency, with omega coefficients of 0.934 and 0.888, respectively, and alpha coefficients of 0.941 and 0.887, respectively. In addition, both versions demonstrated acceptable evidence of convergent validity, with AVE values of 0.535 and 0.533, respectively.
Conclusion: The WEMWBS-Thai and SWEMWBS-Thai demonstrated acceptable evidence of construct validity, convergent validity, and internal consistency, with adequate fit to the empirical data among Thai undergraduate students. Further evaluation of their psychometric properties in other populations, including clinical populations, is warranted to establish their applicability across diverse contexts.
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