The City Worker Mental Health Scale: A Validation Study

The aim of the study was to develop the City Worker Mental Health Scale (CWMHS) and to investigate the psychometric properties of the instrument. This instrument was developed as a self-reported assessment tool. The development was based on a mixture of theoretical and empirical approaches. The psychometric properties of the instrument were investigated with an experimental sample of more than 1000 white-collar workers for its construct validity and factorial structure. A test sample of 1264 participants was also used to test for its internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The convergent validity of the CWMHS was examined using a separate sample of 86 subjects with SCL-90 as the standard. Results on Confirmatory Factor Analysis suggested that a model of a 8-factor structure fitted well with the data. Further analyses indicated that a 5 sub-scale structure was nested in two factors. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for these factors, ranging from 0.703 to 0.893, also suggested satisfactory internal consistency. Test-retest reliability was also examined yielding high Intraclass correlations ranging from 0.505 to 0.784. Correlations between CWMHS and the SCL-90 provided evidence for satisfactory convergent validity to the instrument. The CWMHS has been demonstrated as a valid instrument suitable for assessing the mental health status of white-collar workers from an Asian background.