Older adults' mental health factor structure stability: Self-reports and confidant-reports

The factor structures of three reports of an older adult version (Zautra, Guarnaccia, and Reich, 1988) of the Mental Health Inventory (MHI) (Veit and Ware, 1983) were compared. This measure is the predecessor from which the Mental Health subscale of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form General Health Survey (SF-36) (Ware, Snow, Kosinski, and Gandek, 1993) was developed. Temporal stability of MHI scores was assessed using two monthly Self-Reports of 117 adults between the ages of 60 and 80. Robustness to change in rarer was evaluated using the first MHI Self-Report and a matched Confidant-Report. Convergent and discriminant validity was evaluated. Factor structure comparisons were made by progressively forcing parameters equal between confirmatory factor analysis models. Factor structure of the MHI was robust with respect to both retest and change in reporter.