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Developing a scale measuring perceived knowledge and skills dimensions for mental health promotion: a pilot test using a convenience sample

Gert Lang (Research Institute of the Red Cross, Vienna, Austria AND Austrian Health Promotion Foundation, a business unit of Gesundheit Österreich GmbH, Vienna, Austria)
Eija Stengård (National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland)
Richard Wynne (Work Research Centre, Dublin, Ireland)

The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice

ISSN: 1755-6228

Article publication date: 14 March 2016

572

Abstract

Purpose

Against the background of rising mental health (MH) problems many practitioners and health programmers require tools to plan and implement mental health promotion (MHP). A Likert scale to measure Perceived Knowledge of Skills needed for MHP (PKSMHP) was developed and pilot tested. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

A convenience sample of leading personnel (n=106) in three settings (43 schools, 24 workplaces, 39 care facilities) was drawn in five European countries. A descriptive item analysis, an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and a scales’ performance analysis was adopted.

Findings

The validated PKSMHP scale included nine high-quality items measuring the knowledge level of three skills dimensions: MHP management/planning, MHP tools/methods/services and recognition/detection of MH problems. Taken together these can be seen to represent the overall type of skills needed for implementing MHP.

Originality/value

The short scale showed very good scale performance values in this pilot study. After further testing the scale might be used as a baseline assessment of MHP needs, as a building block for MHP training and organisational capacity building.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

There is no conflict of interest. This work is based on the EU project “MindHealth – Training for Mental Health Promotion” which was supported through the Lifelong Learning Programme. Agreement Number: No. 2009 [LLP/LdV/TOI/2009/IRL – 502]. For further details please visit www.mentalhealthpromotion.net/?i=training (8 February 2016). The authors acknowledge the work of the entire project team: Doris Bammer, Almut Bachinger, Katharina Resch, Nathalie Henke, Rena Hohenstein, Jörg Michel, Tilia Boussios, Merike Sisask, Zrinka Laido, Lauraliisa Mark, Pia Solin, Maarit Lassander, Donal McAnaney, Isabelle Jeffares, and Frank Cuneen.

Citation

Lang, G., Stengård, E. and Wynne, R. (2016), "Developing a scale measuring perceived knowledge and skills dimensions for mental health promotion: a pilot test using a convenience sample", The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 10-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-02-2015-0005

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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