Psychological well-being and anxiety among relatives of Mexican cancer patients: Two models

Abstract

The psychopathological model of mental health emphasizes dimensions such as depression and anxiety. The dual model however includes positive traits such as optimism and self-esteem. The current study compared both models to show which one better predicts psychological wellbeing as well as anxiety. The procedure utilized in this study included calculating a mental health index that combined optimism, self-esteem, depression and perceived stress scores. The sample for convenience consisted of 350 relatives of cancer patients. Their mean age was M = 39.87 years, SD = 14.87. Structural equation modeling was used to measure the effects of mental health over psychological well-being and anxiety. Findings reveal that both models produce similar size effects (> 0.26) of the explained variances. The dual model however has a greater capacity to predict psychological well-being (.65 versus .44) and anxiety (.46 versus .38). Finally, the article discusses implications of the dual model for diagnosis, interpretation and intervention.

Keywords

• dual model
• mental health
• psychopatho-logical models
• well-being
• anxiety