Testing the interrelationship between mental well-being and mental distress in young people

ABSTRACT

The relationship between mental well-being and distress in young people is unclear but important for both theoretical and practical reasons. This study tests these relationships using both dimensional and categorical measures of mental well-being and distress. Two thousand and eighty-two Australians’ (16–25 years) completed an online survey. A subsample (n = 389) completed diagnostic telephone interviews to identify 12-month DSM-IV mood, anxiety and substance use disorders. Five competing models of the relationship between mental well-being and distress were compared. Only the bifactor model fit the data, indicating both mental well-being and distress are important subcomponents of a young person’s overall level of mental health. Over 90% of young people had flourishing or moderate well-being and only 6% were languishing. Those with past year mental disorders were only 15% less likely to be flourishing and 4% more likely to be languishing. These findings highlight the well-being potential of young people living with and without mental disorders.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental wellbeing
• mental distress
• mental disorder
• young people
• model

Acknowledgments

The Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, which was established under the Australian Government‘s Cooperative Research Centres Program provided some staffing support for this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by Australian Research Council (ARC), Future Fellowship [FT120100780] awarded to Leanne Hides.