A Validation Study of the Arabic Full and Short Versions of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale among Undergraduate Students

Background: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the validity of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) and the short version of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS) and to evaluate the metric properties of both versions by using a sample of undergraduate students from three Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Methods: Six hundred ninety undergraduate students (340 M and 350 F; mean age = 21.16 ± 2.44) from three GCC countries, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia ( N OM = 238, N QA = 215, N SA = 237), voluntarily participated in the study. All of them responded to the WEMWBS, BPNSFS, and Beck Depression Inventory-II. Results: The translated Arabic versions of the WEMWBS and SWEMWBS showed good reliability, with Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.867 and 0.772, respectively. The findings of confirmatory factor analysis asserted the one-factor solution to interpret the item variances of the 14-item WEMWBS and 7-item SWEMWBS. The WEMWBS and SWEMWBS also showed significant relationships with need satisfaction, need frustration, and depression. Moreover, the SWEMWBS showed partial scalar invariance across genders and countries, while the WEMWBS showed only partial metric invariance across the three countries and partial scalar invariance across genders. Conclusions: We conclude that the two versions of the WEMWBS are appropriate for use in assessing mental well-being among Arab undergraduates. We highly recommend the use of the WEMWBS and SWEMWBS to assess mental well-being among a similar targeted population. Further evaluative studies are encouraged to examine the validity of the two Arabic versions of the WEMWBS involving clinical and nonclinical populations in Arab countries.