Measuring Mental Wellbeing
The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) is a document giving 14 positively worded statements, each with five response categories, for assessing a population's mental wellbeing. This was commissioned from Warwick and Edinburgh universities and published in 2006. Find out about how it was developed and how it's being used.
Assessing the mental wellbeing (positive mental health) of the population requires validated scales that reflect current concepts of mental wellbeing. The adult mental health indicators work highlighted the fact that there is a need for such scales which capture current thinking and which are validated for use in Scotland, and elsewhere in the UK.
Researchers at Warwick and Edinburgh Universities were commissioned to validate (for the UK) Affectometer 2, a scale previously identified as promising for assessing population mental wellbeing, and to develop a revised and shortened scale, The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS). WEMWBS is a 14 item scale which covers both hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives. Initial validation using student populations was followed up by the inclusion of WEMWBS in two national Scottish surveys (2006 September wave of the Health Education Population Survey (HEPS) and the 2006 Well? What do you think survey?). Data analyses showed that WEMWBS performed equally well in the general population as in student groups.
Information on this research and WEMWBS is contained in the following:
- Briefing note Affectometer 2 and WEMWBS validation
- Research report on validation of Affectometer 2 and development of WEMWBS Monitoring positive mental health in Scotland: validating the Affectometer 2 scale and developing the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale for the UK
- Articles in Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
- the development and initial validation of WEMWBS including analysis of the population survey data HQLO 2007 Volume 5 issue 63
- further psychometric analysis which tested the internal construct validity of WEMWBS from the perspective of the Rasch measurement model HQLO 2009 Volume 7 issue 15. This indicated that a 7 item version, the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scales (SWEMWBS), provides a better fit to the Rasch model.
To date sensitivity to change has been reported in one study Parenting Early Intervention Pathfinders (external link). This study administered WEMWBS to over 1000 parents before and after attendance at a parenting programme. The mean WEMWBS score changed from 43.5 to 50.6. This represents an effect size of 0.71 which is considered to be a large change.
Use of WEMWBS
WEMWBS is now included in the core module of the annual Scottish Health Survey (external link) (from 2008) and is also being widely used throughout the UK and beyond. To assess the availability of sub-national WEMWBS data from the Scottish Health Survey see Scottish Health Survey Analysis by Local Authority or Health Board (Word document) (external link).
WEMWBS is being used for one of the Scottish Government's 45 National indicators (external link) which will track progress towards achievement of the national outcomes and overall purpose. Other examples of the use of WEMWBS are provided in the user guide below.
How to use WEMWBS
A user guide for WEMWBS is available to help you. This will be updated and revised as necessary as further validation and other data on WEMWBS become available. To further assist, answers to some common requests for clarification are contained in a frequently asked questions document.
We welcome the use of WEMWBS. It is free to use but is copyrighted to NHS Health Scotland and the Universities of Warwick and Edinburgh. Permission is required for use. Dr Hendramoorthy Maheswaran (Hendy) H.Maheswaran@warwick.ac.uk at the University of Warwick, is maintaining a register of use and is the person to contact when seeking such permission and for answers to questions on using WEMWBS .
Should you decide to use WEMWBS, we ask that when you seek permission for use from Hendy, that you indicate how you are planning to use WEMWBS and after use that you feed back to Hendy on how WEMWBS has performed. Hendy is also the person to contact should you have more technical questions regarding the scale and its use.
If the scale is reproduced, it must include the copyright statement which appears with it and no changes to its wording, response categories or layout must be made. Any report regarding use of WEMWBS also needs to include the following text:
"The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale was funded by the Scottish Executive National Programme for improving mental health and well-being, commissioned by NHS Health Scotland, developed by the University of Warwick and the University of Edinburgh, and is jointly owned by NHS Health Scotland, the University of Warwick and the University of Edinburgh."
Validation of WEMWBS with secondary school aged children
NHS Health Scotland commissioned Warwick and Edinburgh Universities to test the suitability of using WEMWBS with children aged 13 to 15. This work, the WAVES project, was carried out in 6 schools in Scotland and England between March 2008 and October 2009.
The main recommendation from the WAVES Project report is that:
WEMWBS is suitable for use at a population level to measure mental wellbeing in teenagers amongst those aged 13 years and over. It is safe to use in samples of over 100 people.
The next step for the children and young people's mental health indicators work is to seek to gain inclusion of WEMWBS in an appropriate national Scottish Survey.
Updated 26th April 2010