Rationale and development of a general population well-being measure: Psychometric status of the GP-CORE in a student sample

This paper presents the rationale, development, and psychometric status of a non-clinical self-report measure for the general population (GP) - including students - derived from the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) and hence termed the GP-CORE. In contrast to the CORE-OM, the GP-CORE does not comprise items denoting high-intensity of presenting problems or risk and thereby increases its acceptability in a non-clinical population. Uniquely, over half the items in the GP-CORE are positively keyed. Analyses showed the GP-CORE to have good reliability, to distinguish between clinical and non-clinical populations, and have convergent validity against the full version. Norms for student populations are presented. It is suggested that the GP-CORE has considerable utility as a means of tapping the psychological well being of students and can then interface with counselling and mental health services using the CORE-OM.