Abstract 3

Acknowledgements 4

1. Introduction and main findings 8

Motivation and context 8

What is child subjective well-being? 11

Why measuring children’s subjective well-being matters? 12

How to measure children’s subjective well-being? 13

Life evaluation measures included in key cross-national surveys 13

Affect measures included in key cross-national surveys 18

Eudaimonia measures included in key cross-national surveys 20

Cross-cutting issues and considerations 23

2. Measuring children's subjective well-being: Why is it relevant? 27

What is children’s subjective well-being 27

Subjective well-being as a pillar of child development 30

Subjective well-being in childhood as a predictor of adult life outcomes 32

Integrating subjective well-being into a global framework for child well-being 33

Children's views on what matters 35

3. Core dimensions of children's subjective well-being 42

Children’s subjective well-being: Frameworks and measurement approaches 42

Mental health and affect: How they differ 43

Social and emotional skills and eudaimonia: Distinctions and connections 43

Broadening the scope: Children’s “core capacities” 44

Main measures of children’s subjective well-being 46

Life evaluation 46

Affect 50

Eudaimonia 52

4. Quality of measures of children’s subjective well-being 62

Key criteria for choosing measurement tools 62

Selecting measures of children’s subjective well-being 64

Life evaluation 64

Affect 84

Eudaimonia 86

Integrated approaches to the measurement of children’s (subjective) well-being 92

Quality of life 94

Cross-cutting methodological issues 98

Survey vehicle and covariates 98

Question placement, wording and response formats 100

Inclusivity 101

International comparability 104

Building on local initiatives 104

References 106

Annex A. Children's subjective well-being literature deeply rooted in adult research 131

Annex B. The Well-being Framework in PISA surveys 134

Annex C. Socio-emotional skills in the OECD Survey on Social and Emotional Skills 136

Annex D. Cross-country variations in the dimensions of children’s subjective wellbeing 138

Notes 142