Brief Version of the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scales for Children and Adolescents: Evidence of Validity

Background: Well-being has become a core concept in the study of positive child health, however, previous instruments for well-being evaluation have been centered mainly on the hedonic component. Therefore, the objective of this study was to adapt the Psychological Well-being Scales for assessing eudaimonic well-being in children and adolescents using a single-item per dimension approach. Method: A total of 312 participants (52.9% girls; ages 10-18) from Spain completed the Psychological Well-Being Scales Short Form, the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, and their psychological wellbeing was evaluated via a semi-structured interview by a developmental psychologist who was an expert in positive psychology. Results: Parallel analysis and exploratory factor analysis suggested a unidimensional structure that showed an excellent fit to the data. The new measure also demonstrated scalar invariance across gender and age. Moreover, the new scale significantly correlated with both WHO-5 and the expert,aos ratings of psychological well-being, indicating adequate criterion validity. Conclusions: The Psychological Well-Being Scales Short Form is a useful, brief measuring instrument that reduces children cognitive fatigue during evaluation.