Quantitative measures of subjective wellbeing for adolescents: a scoping review and synthesis of comparable data

Efforts to promote adolescent wellbeing are of increasing global interest. Although the ability to measure wellbeing is essential for identifying disparities between and within populations, and for tracking progress in improving wellbeing, the best way to measure this elusive concept in adolescents is unclear. We undertook a scoping review of quantitative measures of subjective wellbeing to identify those used in population studies of adolescents (aged 10-24 years), and mapped the identified measures against an adolescent wellbeing framework developed by the UN H6+ Technical Working Group on Adolescent Health and Well-Being. We also reviewed global surveys of adolescents to identify how wellbeing was measured, and synthesised available data to show the utility of these measures. Our review identified 52 unique measures that had been used with adolescents, of which 19 had been designed or adapted specifically for adolescents. The identified measures aligned reasonably well with the five domains of the UN framework, except for the domain of safety and a supportive environment. KIDSCREEN-52 was the most comprehensive of the identified measures. The single-item Cantril Ladder of life satisfaction has been widely used in multicountry population surveys, and available data showed wide variation by age, gender, and location. In summary, this Review shows that many measures have been used to measure wellbeing in adolescents, although fewer were specifically designed or adapted to use with adolescents. These findings support scalable efforts to quantify wellbeing, which is an important foundation of investments to enhance adolescent wellbeing.