This paper reports on a research study that empirically examined the psychological wellbeing of more than 400 adolescents in order to obtain a better understanding of holistic approaches to adult mental health; it reports that a one-factor structure was best and results indicated no change across racial/ethnic and gender identities at each wave of the study as well as longitudinally within the entire population sample.
Gains in holistic approaches to adult mental health have been associated with increasing interest in understanding psychological wellbeing (PWB) among adolescents. Empirical examination of measurement models for PWB in adolescence is lacking. Thus, the current study examined PWB in a longitudinal, diverse sample of 433 adolescents (non-Latinx Black: 37.6 percent; non-Latinx White: 25.9 percent; Latinx: 36.5 percent; Male adolescents: 50.1 percent). A one-factor, correlated six-factor and hierarchical models were examined across racial/ethnic (White, Black, and Hispanic) and gender (female, male) identities, after which the best fitting model was selected to undergo invariance testing. A one-factor structure was superior, and exhibited strict invariance across racial/ethnic and gender identities at each wave of the study, as well as longitudinal invariance within the entire sample. (Published Abstract Provided)