Persian Translation, Cross cultural Adaptation and Validity and Reliability of the Mental Health Literacy Knowledge Assessment Tool in Iranian Students

Introduction: The importance of mental health literacy is recognized as an essential component for increasing knowledge and changing attitudes towards mental health and mental illness in school students. To identify mental health problems, tools to measure knowledge of mental health literacy to cases, understanding mental health and mental illness, mental illness stigma, information about specific mental illnesses, experiences of mental illness، Assistance and the importance of positive mental health. The study aimed to translate, cultural adaptation and examine the validity and reliability of the mental health literacy knowledge assessment tool in Iranian students. Methods: The English version of the Mental Health Literacy Knowledge Measuring Tool was conducted with 28 knowledge questions and 8 attitude questions about mental disorders, initial translation, open translation and corrections. Then, the qualitative formalization of the questionnaire was reviewed and approved by 12 experts (psychiatrist, psychologist, educational sciences, health education and health promotion and biostatistics). To calculate the reliability, 30 students aged 13 to 15 completed the first Persian version of the questionnaire twice, 14 days apart. Results: In the translation of the tool, two questions were adapted and localized to Iranian culture. In the content validity check, the content validity ratio scale and the content validity index were calculated according to the tables of Lavshe, Waltz and Basel. CVI average of the items was 0/88 and in the CVR, questions 4 were unacceptable. Students’ Cronbach's alpha coefficient index of general health knowledge questions and attitude about mental disorders were obtained as 0/96 and 0/86, respectively and the Pearson correlation of the questions of the knowledge section was 0/93 and the attitude was 0/76, which is an acceptable reliability coefficient. Conclusion: The present tool is a tool for measuring mental health literacy knowledge that was translated and localized in Iran, which is useful for measuring mental health literacy among 13 to 15-year-old high school students. Using the mental health literacy knowledge measurement tool is suggested to increase knowledge and reduce the stigma of mental illness in order to improve mental health literacy in schools.