The factors most consistently related to our health measures were self-esteem, followed by weight-related worries (representing body image), and it was generally only these which made any impact on sex differences in health.
The categories that are measured using the DQoL are self-esteem, positive affect/humor, negative affect, feelings of belonging, and sense of aesthetics.
To test construct validity of the McSad, we examined the correlations of the McSad domains (i.e. domain scores) with depression scales (i.e. total scores), as well as with other scales measuring constructs related to depression, that is self-esteem and extraversion.
Five domains are measured: self esteem, positive affect/humour, negative affect, feelings of belonging and sense of aesthetics.
Note that the conceptualization of neuroticism in the FFM personality traits does not include measures of self esteem and is therefore more narrow than the core self-evaluations concept.
The main outcome measures are psychological coping resources (mastery, self-esteem and self-efficacy) and wellbeing (positive affect, life satisfaction, valuation of life and depressive symptoms).
This measure was selected because self-esteem was seen as a related construct to quality of life.
MHSUs too reported satisfaction with their involvement and the increment, in this small sample, in MHSU trait self-esteem and self-efficacy scores suggests further study of this approach may be worthwhile, although problems with measures of self-esteem are discussed further below.
Items on this measure were adapted from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and assess individuals' general sense of confidence and personal value (Rosenberg, 1965; IUCPSR, 2006).
Because self-report measures of self-esteem are sensitive to self-presentation and impression management strategies, an implicit association test (IAT) was used to assess participants' self-esteem as well as their general evaluation of others ('other-esteem').
