Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students: An Expansion of the Mental Health Literacy Scale

Hsing-Jung Chao, Yin-Ju Lien, Yu-Chen Kao, I-Chuan Tasi, Hui-Shin Lin and Yin-Yi Lien
Additional contact information
Hsing-Jung Chao: Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Heping East Road Section 1, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Yin-Ju Lien: Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Heping East Road Section 1, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Yu-Chen Kao: Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital Songshan Branch, Taipei 106, Taiwan
I-Chuan Tasi: Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Heping East Road Section 1, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Hui-Shin Lin: Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Heping East Road Section 1, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Yin-Yi Lien: Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Heping East Road Section 1, Taipei 106, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: Objective: Although the recently developed mental health literacy scale showed significant score differences between general population and mental health professionals, to this date there is no published scale intended to specifically assess mental health literacy (MHL) in healthcare students. This study constructed a 26-item scale-based measure to assess multiple components of MHL and associated psychometric properties in a sample of medical and public health students of 11 universities in Taiwan. Methods: The development and validation of the scale comprised three phases: measure development, pilot testing (n = 32), and psychometric properties examination (n = 1294). Results: 26 items were generated for five factors: maintenance of positive mental health, recognition of mental illness, attitude to mental illness stigma, help-seeking efficacy, and help-seeking attitude. The scale demonstrated good content validity, internal consistency, and construct validity (factorial validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and known groups validity). Conclusions: The findings suggest that the Mental Health Literacy Scale for Healthcare Students (MHLS-HS) is a valid, reliable, and practical tool for identifying MHL gaps in medical and public health students. It has the potential to inform remedial curricular interventions for educators and evaluate intervention effectiveness.

Keywords: mental health literacy; mental illness stigma; measurement; medical education; public health education; health professionals and students; Mental Health Literacy Scale for Healthcare Students (MHLS-HS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/948/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/948/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:948-:d:316084

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().