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Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale

WEMWBS
psychologyhealth sciencesLicensed: permission required

Permission: Licensed: permission required. Obtain permission from the copyright holder before using it in a study.

A 14-item scale measuring mental well-being (hedonic and eudaimonic) over the past two weeks, covering positive affect, psychological functioning, and interpersonal relationships.

Items
14
Response format
5-point frequency scale
Version
1.0

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Mental well-being was measured with the WEMWBS (Tennant et al., 2007), a 14-item scale with high internal consistency (α = .89 in the student sample and .91 in the population sample) and good one-week test-retest reliability (ICC = .83).

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Permission required

Importing WEMWBS into a Surveyor study is disabled: Folio holds the instrument’s metadata, not a license to pass on its wording. The citation, scoring and reliability details on this page are free to use and cite.

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Reliability & validation

Validation population
UK university student samples and a Scottish population sample (Tennant et al., 2007)
Test–retest
0.83
Cronbach's α
0.89

Known limitations

Requires a license from the University of Warwick (a non-commercial license for academic and non-profit use; fees apply to commercial and NHS use). The original validation found no ceiling effects in a population sample; a 7-item short form (SWEMWBS) offers interval-level scoring.

Original citation

Tennant, R., Hiller, L., Fishwick, R., Platt, S., Joseph, S., Weich, S., Parkinson, J., Secker, J., & Stewart-Brown, S. (2007). The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): Development and UK validation. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 5(1), 63.

https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-5-63

This instrument is licensed. Folio does not distribute its item wording. Obtain permission from the copyright holder before using it in your study.

Questions researchers ask

What does the WEMWBS measure?

A 14-item scale measuring mental well-being (hedonic and eudaimonic) over the past two weeks, covering positive affect, psychological functioning, and interpersonal relationships.

How many items does the WEMWBS have?

The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) has 14 items.

Is the WEMWBS free to use?

The WEMWBS is licensed. You must obtain permission from the copyright holder before using it in a study. Folio does not distribute its item wording without that permission.

Is the WEMWBS reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.89, test–retest reliability of 0.83. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the WEMWBS, and how do I cite it?

Tennant, R., Hiller, L., Fishwick, R., Platt, S., Joseph, S., Weich, S., Parkinson, J., Secker, J., & Stewart-Brown, S. (2007). The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): Development and UK validation. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 5(1), 63. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-5-63

Or track new research mentioning WEMWBS as it publishes

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Library entry verified September 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.