Development and Validation of the Children's and Adolescents' Wellbeing at School Scale.

Abstract

This research aimed to develop and validate a measure to assess school well-being in children and adolescents, addressing limitations of previous tools and drawing on the PERMA model. Two studies were conducted: Study 1 included 487 children (ages 9-12) and 258 adolescents (ages 13-15) from UK schools, whereas Study 2 involved 219 UK children (ages 7-11) and 209 Spanish children (ages 9-12). Factor analyses revealed a two-factor structure: positive affect (PA) and school climate and support (SCS), which reflect hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, respectively. Path and network analyses showed PA correlates with general happiness, whereas SCS is linked to psychological need satisfaction at school. Despite positive correlations between PA and SCS, differences were noted, emphasizing the multidimensionality of well-being. Full measurement invariance was observed in UK children and adolescents, but not for cross-national comparisons, underscoring potential cultural differences in how school well-being is experienced. The findings highlight the reliability of the new measure, offering a valuable tool for assessing school well-being and guiding interventions to enhance student support. The measure's capacity to distinguish between affective and support-based dimensions of well-being has important implications for targeted educational strategies, enabling schools to better address both hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions of well-being.