Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: Well-being measures for children that could be used in economic evaluations remain scarce. This paper describes the development process and first validation of a new instrument measuring well-being of children aged 8 to 15 years old, the nine-item Well-being of Youth instrument (Well-Y).
METHODS: A multi-phase instrument development approach was applied. Development commenced from an existing conceptual framework of subjective well-being, for which comprehensiveness was assessed by mapping existing measures onto its structure, leading to a final domain selection. Secondly, we generated items to cover the relevant domains and designed the instrument. Finally, we conducted qualitative content validation among experts and two samples of children who provided feedback on item relevance, clarity, formatting, and response options.
RESULTS: The development process resulted in a draft instrument consisting of nine well-being domains: health, neighborhood, morality, activities, money, safety, resilience, self, and agency; and one general open question on overall well-being. Each domain was represented by a core item and an explanatory description, with four-level answer categories. Stakeholder and expert consultation supported the overall structure and content of the instrument. Qualitative testing in children showed favorable results, although minor wording and format refinements were implemented to improve clarity and age-appropriateness.
CONCLUSIONS: The Well-Y, as a new, comprehensive, nine-item subjective well-being instrument for children aged 8-15 years, showed good feasibility and content validity, supporting its potential as a broader outcome measure in evaluations of health and social care interventions. It embraces subjective well-being framework, empirical basis, as well as a child-centered perspective. Further validation studies and preference elicitation are needed for Well-Y to be applied for assessing the well-being of children in economic evaluations.