Psychometric properties of the Wellness Questionnaire for Higher Education

The wellness model is applied widely by student counselling and development practitioners in South Africa. Its holistic focus is inclusive of physical, intellectual, social, environmental, occupational, financial, emotional and spiritual dimensions of individual development. It is used for individual counselling and also to conceptualise student needs in order to plan for student counselling and development group interventions. However, no standardized measures of wellness exist for South African use. The Wellness Questionnaire for Higher Education (WQHE) was developed in response to this assessment deficiency. This article describes the psychometric properties of the WQHE as evidenced to date. The overall findings in terms of the various psychometric properties investigated confirm that (i) wellness is an observable and measureable behaviour, and (ii) the WQHE adequately operationalises the wellness model for South African students of Higher Education across gender, language and academic year level groups - thereby providing users with a valid and reliable indication of their levels of wellness.