Ensuring the Validity of Assessing Student Well-Being in Paper-and-Pencil and Web-Based Formats: The Measurement Invariance of the MHC-SF

The increasing use of digital assessment tools in education necessitates rigorous psychometric evaluation of to support their equivalence across administration formats. This study investigated the structural validity and measurement invariance of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF), a widely used measure of student well-being, across paper-and-pencil and web-based formats. Participants included 1,297 secondary school students (59.75% female; M age = 14.57, SD = 1.23) from public schools in the Philippines, who answered the MHC-SF administered in English. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we examined competing measurement models and found superior fit for the theoretically-derived three-factor structure (emotional, social, and psychological well-being) compared to alternative models. Multigroup invariance testing demonstrated measurement invariance between paper-and-pencil ( n = 663) and web-based ( n = 634) administration modes, with invariant factor structure (configural), factor loadings (metric), intercepts (scalar), and residual variances (strict). The findings corroborate the internal validity of the MHC-SF and demonstrates its utility for assessing adolescent students’ well-being across different administration formats. This study provieds empirical support on the viability of the MHC-SF as a web-based tool for assessing well-being, which is crucial for timely intervention. Critically, the equivalence of the MHC-SF across administration methods has important implications for the growing integration of technology in education, especially in resource-constrained contexts.