Validity of Mental Health Literacy Scales on Helping People at Risk of Depression among Thai Students in Health Science: Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Mental health literacy (MHL) has garnered global attention as a crucial element in mitigating the risks associated with depression within communities and plays a pivotal role in shaping help-seeking behaviors. Objective: To develop an MHL and helping behavior (HB) scale while examining a causal relationship model of HB. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study designed by collecting 211 Thai health science students through stratified random sampling. The development process and quality assessment of the MHL and HB measures revealed five components by trying out 30 participants with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.811 to 0.901 and item-total correlations of 0.252 to 0.828. Data were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) utilizing LISREL version 8.72. Results: 1) CFA confirmed the construct validity of both measures with empirical data. The 15-item MHL scale achieved an overall Cronbach’s alpha of 0.84 and factor loading between 0.35 and 0.85. Similarly, the 17-item HB scale achieved an overall Cronbach’s alpha of 0.86 and factor loading between 0.30 and 0.79, and 2) results of the causal relationship model estimation demonstrated a significant positive direct influence of MHL on HB that MHL could predict HM by 67.00%. Conclusion: Both concise measurement scales exhibited good quality, making them viable options for use by healthcare professionals or educators in screening and assessing students’ abilities in aiding individuals at risk of depression.