Psychometric Validation of a Subjective Well-Being Measure in a Medical Student Sample

• In Event: Emotions and Wellness in the Professions

Abstract

Psychopathologies tend to be used as proxies for well-being conditions in medical education while a direct, multidimensional measure of well-being is lacking. This study examined the factor structure underlying the well-being construct as assessed by the well-being scale (the WeBS; Lui & Fernando, 2018) in a sample of osteopathic medical students. Findings indicated that the bifactor structure with items cross loading brought the strongest model-data fit among four factor models under examination. To our knowledge, this study is among the pioneering research efforts to validate a well-being instrument in the medical student population. The validation of the WeBS is foundational to future investigations of predictors of medical students’ well-being, and longitudinal analysis of medical students’ well-being over their matriculation trajectory.

Authors

• Hoan Do, Ohio University

• Mary Wurm-Schaar, Ohio University

• Gordon P. Brooks, Ohio University