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Research Instrument Mental Health & Mood // MHI38

Mental Health Inventory (MHI-38)

38-item measure of psychological distress and well-being developed for the Medical Outcomes Study. Most items use a 6-point frequency scale referring to the past month, but several items use alternate response formats (happiness, frequency, nervousness severity, depression severity, suicidal ideation). Yields 5 subscales: Anxiety (9 items), Depression (4 items), Loss of Behavioral/Emotional Control (10 items), General Positive Affect (10 items), and Emotional Ties (5 items). Two composite scores: Psychological Distress and Psychological Well-Being. Scores are item means transformed to 0–100: (mean − 1) / 5 × 100. Higher scores indicate better mental health.

Purpose Details Scientific Documentation Limitations Related

Purpose

Self-report research instrument, reproduced here under an open license for non-diagnostic educational, research, and self-reflection use.

Details

Administration
Self-Administered
Intended Use
Research

Scientific Documentation

Developer / Author
Veit, C. T., & Ware, J. E.
Development Year
1983

Theoretical framework: Measures psychological distress and psychological well-being as related but distinguishable dimensions of mental health.

Reliability: Original validation reported high internal consistency for its major subscales.

Validity: Developed and validated as part of the RAND Health Insurance Experiment; widely used general-population mental health measure since.

References: Veit, C. T., & Ware, J. E. (1983). The structure of psychological distress and well-being in general populations. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51(5), 730-742.

Limitations: Imported from the OpenScales open item-bank project. This specific digital implementation has not been independently clinically validated by PsiQ — scores are for self-reflection, research, and educational purposes only, and are not a diagnosis.

License: Public Domain (https://www.rand.org/health-care/surveys_tools.html). Citation: Veit, C.T., & Ware, J.E. (1983). The structure of psychological distress and well-being in general populations. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51(5), 730-742. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.51.5.730 This is not a diagnostic tool. If you are in crisis or having thoughts of self-harm, please contact a licensed mental health professional or a crisis helpline in your country immediately. Low/Moderate/High bands below reflect this test's own possible score range only (simple thirds) — they are NOT a clinical threshold or population norm. No such cutoff has been published for this instrument.

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