Abstract The present study used the methods of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) to reinvestigate the factor structure of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) in a nationally representative sample from the Netherlands (N = 1662). The results showed that ESEM yielded better fit and considerably smaller factor correlations than did CFA. These findings suggest that ESEM is a more appropriate method than traditional CFA for examining the factor structure of mental well-being. The contributions of ESEM to current debates concerning the distinction between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being are discussed.