Development and validation of the EspaiJove.net mental health literacy (EMHL) test for spanish adolescents

This research was funded by Carlos III Institute of Health, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness This was awarded on the 2015 call for tenders under the Health Strategy Action 2013–2016, within the National Research Programmer aimed at Societal Challenges, within the Technical, Scientific and Innovation Research National Plan 2013–2016, with grant number PI15/01613, and was co-funded by European Union ERDF funds (European Regional Development Fund). This research was funded by Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya, en la convocatòria corresponent a l’any 2016 de concessió de subvencions del Pla Estratègic de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (PERIS) 2016-2020, modalitat Projectes de recerca orientats a l’atenció primària, amb el codi d’expedient SLT002/16/00202. ; There is evidence of the effectiveness of implementing mental health literacy (MHL) programs. However, there are substantial limitations in the instruments available for measuring MHL. This study aimed to develop and validate the EspaiJove.net MHL test (EMHL) for Spanish adolescents by assessing its psychometric properties. The development of the EMHL test was conducted using item pool generation and a pilot study. A convenience sample of students aged 13–15 years (n = 355) participated in the validity study. Reliability was assessed for internal consistency and via test-retest. Convergent validity was evaluated by comparing the effect sizes among known groups with different levels of mental health knowledge, the correlation with mental health-related instruments, and the item discrimination index. A final version of a 35-item EMHL test was obtained with two parts: (i) a binary choice format (yes/no) for the identification of mental disorders; (ii) a multiple choice question with four possible answer options. Internal consistency was acceptable in the first part (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.744; Guttman’s lambda 2 = 0.773) and almost acceptable in the second part (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.615; Guttman’s lambda 2 = 0.643). The test-retest evaluation ...