Construction and Validity of Chinese Translation of the Universal Mental Health Literacy Scale for Adolescents

Abstract

Background: In this study, the Universal Mental Health Literacy Scale for Adolescents (UMHL-A) was revised and tested for its reliability and validity in Chinese middle school students, thus establishing a useful tool for assessing the mental health of individuals in this occupation. Methods: Our sample comprised 1208 junior high school students (58.85% male), aged between 11 and 15 years old. The Chinese version of the scale includes a mental health attitude subscale and mental health knowledge subscale, including attitudes towards seeking help, attitudes related to stigma, general mental health knowledge, and knowledge about specific mental illnesses, encapsulated in a total of 17 items. A series of psychometric analyses such as exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and internal consistency reliability estimation were carried out in this study. Results: The results of the CFA indicated that the two-factor model had an acceptable model fit (Attitude (UMHL-A Likert): χ2/df = 4.107; RMSEA = 0.072; SRMR = 0.045; TLI = 0.932; CFI = 0.954; Knowledge (UMHL-A T/F): χ2/df = 3.647; RMSEA = 0.066; SRMR = 0.044; TLI = 0.923; CFI = 0.945). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of subscales of the Chinese version UMHL-A were 0.80 and 0.78, respectively. Conclusion: In general, the Chinese version of the Universal Mental Health Literacy Scale for adolescents has good reliability and validity and can be used as a tool to measure the mental health literacy of Chinese adolescents.