Study of validity and reliability of the Mental Health Literacy Scale in Turkish

Objective: Aim of study is to adapt the Mental Health Literacy Scale to Turkish and to determine its validity and reliability. Methods: Sample of this methodological study consisted of 282 adult individuals. The data were collected with the sociodemographic data collection form and the Mental Health Literacy Scale developed O'Connor and Casey, between September 16th, 2019 and October 31st, 2019. Adaptation of the scale into Turkish was done by following the steps of translation, back translation, getting expert opinions and pilot application. The Mental Health Literacy Scale Turkish form was conducted to 282 adult individuals. The Scale has been tested with the content validity index for the scale validity; confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity; independent samples t-test to compare known group scores for; item analyses to test the scale reliability; Cronbach's alpha analysis for internal consistency of the total scale and subdomains; dependent samples t-test to compare the test-retest scores for time invariance; and intraclass correlation coefficient. The ethics committee permission was obtained and written consent was also received from the individuals. Results: The content validity index of the Turkish form of the Mental Health Literacy Scale, which was adapted into Turkish, was found to be 0.98. It was determined that the scale had six subdomains. The confirmatory factor analysis results of the scale indicated that the loadings of all items varied from 0.30 to 0.99. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the scale was found to be 0.89. It was determined that the Mental Health Literacy Scale score average of the individuals was 107.37 +/- 15.94. Discussion: The results of the validity and reliability study conducted to adapt the Mental Health Literacy Scale into Turkish, showed that this scale can be used to measure mental health literacy level. The Turkish form of the scale can be used safely in programs to be performed in the Turkish society to measure and develop knowledge, beliefs and attitudes regarding mental health literacy level.