Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention

This work analyses the performance of the Mental Health Continuum – Long Form (MHC-LF) – for Adults (Keyes, 2007), in a Portuguese sample of university students. The MHC-LF is a self-assessment scale, composed of forty items, that measures subjective well-being. These items are organized according to three distinct scales: positive emotional well-being, psychological well-being and social well-being. 465 students participated in this study from the following courses of Lisbon University: Psychology, Educational Sciences, Biology and Geology. Through confirmatory factorial analyses we concluded that the three-dimensional model has a better fit. Two studies of divergent and convergent validity were also carried out, using burnout and engagement measures, which confirmed the validity of this measure in comparison to other measures of well-being. The results also confirmed the reliability of the tool under study, showing good internal consistency for the full scale and for the three scales (α > .80).