DIMENSIONS OF MENTAL-HEALTH - LIFE SATISFACTION, POSITIVE AFFECT, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

Psychological well-being and psychological distress are often regarded as distinct, if not orthogonal dimensions of mental health. Based on analyses in this paper, we consider the distinction misleading. Four d imensions seem worth measuring in general population surveys: life sat isfaction, positive affect, anxiety and depression. Furthermore, one o f the well-being dimensions, fife satisfaction, is quite strongly corr elated with a distress dimension, depression. A person is unlikely to be both satisfied with life and depressed, but may be satisfied and an xious. The paper is based on convergent validity (exploratory and conf irmatory factor analyses) and divergent validity assessments of a rang e of widely used measures, which were included in the Victorian Qualit y of Life Panel Survey, 1987.