Psychological Well-Being Scale for Children

1. Abstract

The Psychological Well-Being Scale for Children (PWB-c) is an empirically validated psychometric instrument designed to evaluate eudaimonic well-being in pre-adolescents aged 8 to 12 years. Historically, pediatric and developmental psychological research heavily prioritized hedonic indicators—such as subjective happiness, positive affect, or global life satisfaction—or depended almost exclusively on adult proxy reports provided by parents and educators. The PWB-c addresses this structural gap by adapting Carol D. Ryff’s foundational multidimensional model of psychological well-being for late childhood, directly capturing self-reported human flourishing and positive psychological functioning. The instrument operationalizes six theoretical dimensions: Autonomy, Environmental Mastery, Personal Growth, Positive Relations with Others, Purpose in Life, and Self-Acceptance. While configurations comprising 24, 12, and 6 items were developed, psychometric analyses indicate that the 24-item and 12-item versions demonstrate superior internal consistency and structural stability. Psychometric evaluation in Dutch pre-adolescent cohorts confirmed acceptable goodness-of-fit for a second-order structural model (Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = 0.920, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] = 0.050). The scale demonstrates sound temporal stability across two-week retest intervals, robust convergent associations with pediatric subjective life satisfaction measures, and clear discriminant boundaries. The PWB-c equips researchers, educators, and developmental psychologists with a robust self-report methodology to monitor psychological maturation, investigate the etiology of positive mental health, and rigorously appraise child-focused interventions in educational and clinical contexts.

2. Keywords

psychological well-being, eudaimonic well-being, child development, scale validation, psychometrics, Ryff’s PWB, positive psychology, pre-adolescence, self-report assessment, flourishing

3. Authors

The Psychological Well-Being Scale for Children was developed and validated by an interdisciplinary team of researchers in media psychology, communication science, and developmental psychometrics based in the Netherlands:

• Suzanna J. Opree, Ph.D. — Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands. (Email: [email protected])
• Moniek Buijzen, Ph.D. — Behavioural Science Institute (BSI), Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands. (Email: [email protected])
• Eva A. van Reijmersdal, Ph.D. — Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Email: [email protected])

4. Purpose

The primary aim of the Psychological Well-Being Scale for Children (PWB-c) is to deliver a theoretically grounded, psychometrically sound, self-administered questionnaire capable of capturing positive human functioning in youth aged 8 to 12 years. For decades, developmental psychology and pediatric epidemiology prioritized clinical deficit paradigms, centering research on internalizing symptoms (such as anxiety and depression), behavioral disorders, or externalizing problems. When positive functioning was investigated, it was largely conflated with hedonism—defined primarily by sensory pleasure, short-term positive affect, and high subjective life satisfaction. Although hedonic instruments such as Huebner’s Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale provided insights into subjective contentment, they did not capture the psychological mechanics of thriving, self-actualization, or existential purpose.

Furthermore, early childhood research regularly relied on proxy-report questionnaires answered by primary caregivers or schoolteachers. Although proxy reports offer practical utility, empirical literature shows systematic discrepancies between adult observations and children’s internal phenomenological states. Children possess unique insight into their private thoughts, feelings of autonomy, internal sense of purpose, and self-acceptance. A child-centric self-report instrument is indispensable for minimizing measurement error and avoiding paternalistic distortions in developmental assessments.

From an applied perspective, the PWB-c serves as an evaluative metric for positive youth development (PYD) initiatives, school-based socio-emotional learning (SEL) curricula, and pediatric mental health interventions. Educational institutions increasingly implement wellbeing programs designed to build resilience, peer empathy, self-direction, and executive agency. Standard clinical diagnostic checklists fail to measure whether a child is thriving beyond the absence of psychiatric distress. By assessing eudaimonic markers directly, the PWB-c permits investigators to evaluate whether programmatic interventions promote genuine self-growth, internal direction, and adaptive coping in everyday social environments.

5. Psychological Construct

The PWB-c operationalizes eudaimonia through Carol Ryff’s six distinct dimensions of positive psychological functioning, each systematically adapted to align with the socio-cognitive capacities of children in middle to late childhood:

Autonomy

In developmental contexts, autonomy reflects a child’s emergent self-governance, resistance to adverse peer pressures, and internal locus of evaluation. Rather than implying emotional detachment or defiance of adult authority, healthy autonomy in 8- to 12-year-olds involves articulating independent personal viewpoints, sustaining personal preferences when peers disagree, and recognizing when to seek parental guidance constructively. Low autonomy presents as social conformity, dependence on external validation, and difficulty maintaining personal decisions under peer surveillance.

Environmental Mastery

Environmental mastery denotes the child’s self-perceived agency and competence in organizing their immediate microsystems, including home routines, academic schedules, extracurricular activities, and play. For children, this involves organizing schoolwork, navigating everyday challenges, balancing leisure with responsibilities, and choosing supportive social contexts. High scorers feel capable of managing daily tasks, whereas low scorers experience their routine obligations as chaotic, unpredictable, or overwhelming.

Personal Growth

Personal growth captures an orientation toward intellectual curiosity, experiential learning, self-discovery, and developmental expansion. In childhood, this construct reflects openness toward new hobbies, enthusiasm for acquiring novel physical or academic competencies, and an active sense of evolving as an individual. Children with high personal growth exhibit a growth mindset, while those with lower levels show disinterest in novel challenges or express resignation regarding self-improvement.

Positive Relations with Others

This dimension assesses the quality, intimacy, warmth, and trust embedded in the child’s interpersonal ecosystem, spanning both parental bonds and peer affiliations. In middle childhood, relationships transition from purely instrumental play interactions to reciprocal emotional connections. High scores reflect trusting relationships, feelings of social inclusion, and supportive interpersonal networks, whereas low scores indicate feelings of isolation, social alienation, and difficulty establishing close peer bonds.

Purpose in Life

Rather than requiring abstract existential philosophies, purpose in life during pre-adolescence manifests as goal-directed behavior, structured aspirations, forward-looking intentionality, and constructive future-oriented daydreaming. Children scoring high on this dimension express curiosity regarding their future role in society, display intrinsic motivation toward personal milestones, and find personal meaning in their daily activities. Low scorers experience a lack of directedness, aimlessness, and difficulty identifying meaningful personal goals.

Self-Acceptance

Self-acceptance represents a realistic, compassionate, and positive appraisal of oneself across strengths and developmental limitations. In childhood, this construct encompasses body image, cognitive competence, self-worth, and emotional satisfaction with one’s identity. Children with high self-acceptance express pride and contentment regarding who they are, whereas low self-acceptance manifests as chronic self-disappointment, severe self-criticism, and the pervasive desire to be someone fundamentally different.

6. Theoretical Framework

The theoretical bedrock of the PWB-c rests upon Carol Ryff’s multidimensional formulation of psychological well-being (Ryff, 1989), which synthesized existential, humanistic, and life-span developmental theories. Ryff integrated principles from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics with the psychological models of Carl Rogers (fully functioning person), Abraham Maslow (self-actualization), Erik Erikson (psychosocial stages), and Gordon Allport (positive personality growth). The core thesis of this tradition is that well-being cannot be reduced to positive affect or immediate gratification; rather, it reflects purposeful engagement, the actualization of human capabilities, and adaptive psychosocial maturity.

Adapting this adult model for children required grounding in developmental theories, particularly Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan). Pre-adolescents aged 8 to 12 occupy the period of concrete operational thinking and early formal operations. During this developmental transition, children develop introspective capacity, metacognition, and self-evaluative abilities, alongside increasingly sophisticated peer networks and expanding social expectations.

To ensure developmental compatibility, the scale developers translated abstract philosophical ideas into age-appropriate experiences. Complex adult notions of environmental mastery were operationalized as balancing homework with playtime; existential life direction was expressed through future-oriented aspirations and goal orientation; and interpersonal intimacy was anchored in emotional safety with primary caregivers and peers. Consequently, the PWB-c bridges lifespan developmental psychology with pediatric psychometrics, demonstrating that the core dimensions of eudaimonic functioning are structurally identifiable during pre-adolescence.

7. Validity

The psychometric validation of the PWB-c followed rigorous multi-step procedures to establish content, construct, convergent, and discriminant validity across Dutch school-age cohorts.

Content and Face Validity

Content validity was evaluated through expert reviews in child development and cognitive pre-testing focus groups conducted with target-aged children (8–12 years). This iterative step eliminated ambiguous linguistic formulations, replaced double negatives with direct phrasing, and confirmed that item scenarios reflected the authentic social lives of pre-adolescent youths. This minimized construct-irrelevant variance attributable to reading comprehension disparities.

Construct and Convergent Validity

Construct validity was examined by embedding the scale into a nomological network alongside established measures of pediatric subjective well-being. Using an adapted version of Huebner’s Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale, the investigators observed significant, positive correlations between eudaimonic well-being dimensions and subjective life satisfaction. Children reporting higher self-acceptance, positive relationships, and environmental mastery systematically reported higher satisfaction across school, family, and peer domains. This confirmed theoretical expectations that eudaimonic functioning and hedonic contentment operate as complementary, mutually reinforcing constructs in childhood.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity was established by assessing the uniqueness of the six sub-dimensions through structural equation modeling. Inter-factor correlations among the first-order factors demonstrated that while the dimensions share an underlying higher-order well-being core, they remain distinct facets of psychological functioning rather than redundant indicators of general positive affectivity.

8. Reliability

Reliability analyses for the PWB-c encompassed assessments of internal consistency along with short-term test-retest stability across distinct validation phases.

Internal Consistency

The scale development team applied an a priori threshold of Cronbach’s alpha (α) ≥ 0.70 to determine acceptable internal reliability. In the comprehensive 24-item format (comprising 4 items per subscale), composite scale reliability regularly exceeded the 0.80 benchmark across validation cohorts. Individual subscales demonstrated acceptable consistency considering their brief item lengths (typically ranging between 0.68 and 0.78). In the 12-item abbreviated version (2 items per subscale), internal consistency remained psychometrically sound for broad population-level screening, though the authors recommend the full 24-item configuration when precise individual diagnostics or granular subscale evaluations are needed.

Test-Retest Reliability

Temporal stability was examined within a pilot cohort (N = 157) across a two-week testing interval. Bivariate Pearson correlations between baseline (Time 1) and follow-up (Time 2) exceeded the targeted 0.50 threshold across total scores and subscales, demonstrating that the PWB-c measures enduring psychological tendencies rather than fleeting situational moods. This temporal consistency confirms the instrument’s utility for longitudinal tracking across middle childhood.

9. Factor Analysis

The structural dimensionality of the PWB-c was rigorously investigated using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with maximum likelihood estimation.

Initial Theoretical Structural Testing

The structural examination originated with an initial candidate pool of 37 candidate items tested against a second-order factor structure, wherein a global Psychological Well-Being latent factor governed the six hypothesized first-order factors (Autonomy, Environmental Mastery, Personal Growth, Positive Relations with Others, Purpose in Life, Self-Acceptance). The baseline model revealed marginal fit indices (Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = 0.66, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] = 0.06), indicating that several candidate items suffered from cross-loadings or excessive measurement error.

Model Refinement and Final Fit

To establish an optimized psychometric structure, researchers executed systematic model trimming. Items demonstrating low factor loadings (< 0.35) or substantial modification indices were sequentially removed. Correlated measurement errors among similarly phrased item pairs were specified where theoretically justified. This iterative reduction produced the refined 24-item second-order model, which exhibited acceptable structural fit:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): 0.920
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): 0.050 (90% CI [0.046, 0.054])
• Standardized Factor Loadings: All retained items exhibited primary factor loadings ranging between 0.40 and 0.78, confirming robust representation of their respective latent dimensions.

Subsequent multi-group analyses across age and gender confirmed basic measurement invariance, establishing that the structural configuration of eudaimonic well-being remains uniform across boys and girls throughout middle childhood.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The technical characteristics, configuration, and scoring parameters of the Psychological Well-Being Scale for Children are detailed below:

• Instrument Title: Psychological Well-Being Scale for Children (PWB-c)
• Target Construct: Multidimensional Eudaimonic Psychological Well-Being
• Respondent Population: Pre-adolescent children aged 8 to 12 years
• Administration Format: Standardized self-report questionnaire (Paper-and-pencil or digital administration)
• Item Configurations: 24 items (recommended full battery; 4 items per factor), 12 items (abbreviated; 2 items per factor), or 6 items (brief screener; 1 item per factor)
• Response Format: 24, 12, or 6 items
• Subscale Breakdown (24-Item Version):
  • Autonomy: Items 1, 2 (reversed), 3, 4 (reversed)
  • Environmental Mastery: Items 5, 6 (reversed), 7, 8 (reversed)
  • Personal Growth: Items 9, 10 (reversed), 11, 12 (reversed)
  • Positive Relations with Others: Items 13, 14 (reversed), 15, 16 (reversed)
  • Purpose in Life: Items 17, 18 (reversed), 19, 20 (reversed)
  • Self-Acceptance: Items 21, 22 (reversed), 23, 24 (reversed)
• Scoring and Transformation Protocol:
  1. Identify negatively keyed items designed to capture functional impairment or self-doubt (Items 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24).
  2. Invert the numerical values of these negatively worded items.
  3. Compute subscale scores by summing or averaging the corresponding items within each dimension.
  4. Compute the composite Psychological Well-Being score by summing all 24 item values. Higher composite and subscale scores indicate higher eudaimonic functioning.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Psychological Well-Being Scale for Children was developed and validated in 2018. The original psychometric validation study was published by MDPI in the open-access journal Societies under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Under this open-access framework, researchers, educators, and clinicians are permitted to copy, distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial or commercial purposes, provided appropriate attribution is given to the original authors and the initial publication venue is cited.

The instrument is freely accessible for scholarly inquiry and non-profit clinical screening without royalty fees. To access validated non-English adaptations, specialized administration manuals, or raw item configurations, investigators may communicate directly with the corresponding author, Dr. Suzanna J. Opree ([email protected]).

12. References

The empirical foundation of the PWB-c is established upon the following foundational literature:

• Brdar, I., & Kashdan, T. B. (2011). The eudaimonic and hedonic components of happiness: Qualitative and quantitative findings. Social Indicators Research, 100(2), 185–207. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9632-5
• Huebner, E. S. (1994). Preliminary development and validation of a multidimensional life satisfaction scale for children. Psychological Assessment, 6(2), 149–158. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.6.2.149
• Huebner, E. S. (2004). Research on assessment of life satisfaction of children and adolescents. Social Indicators Research, 66(1), 3–33. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SOCI.0000007497.57754.e3
• Keyes, C. L., Shmotkin, D., & Ryff, C. D. (2002). Optimizing well-being: The empirical encounter of two traditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 1007–1022. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.1007
• Opree, S. J., Buijzen, M., & van Reijmersdal, E. A. (2018). Psychological Well-Being Scale for Children. Societies, 8(1), Article 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc8010018
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141–166. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141
• Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069–1081. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069
• Ryff, C. D. (2014). Psychological well-being revisited: Advances in the science and practice of eudaimonia. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 83(1), 10–28. https://doi.org/10.1159/000353263
• Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719–727. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.4.719
• Springer, K. W., & Hauser, R. M. (2006). An assessment of the construct validity of Ryff’s scales of psychological well-being: Method, mode, and measurement effects. Social Science Research, 35(4), 1080–1102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2005.07.004
• Waterman, A. S. (2008). Reconsidering happiness: A eudaimonist’s perspective. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 3(4), 234–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760802303002

13. Items of the Scale