Indicators of Child Well-Being: the Promise for Positive Youth Development

Abstract

In the current U.S. indicators system, measures of child well-being focus primarily on negative outcomes and problems. We measure and track those behaviors that adults wish to prevent. For the most part, the indicators system does not monitor positive development and outcomes. Such a system of child well-being indicators lacks the breadth and balance required in a science-based measurement system. Moreover, it lacks measures of the kinds of constructs that resonate among adolescents themselves and adults. Measures are needed for multiple domains of development, including educational achievement and cognitive attainment, health and safety, social and emotional development, and self-sufficiency. Positive outcomes are often critiqued as soft, highlighting the importance of rigorous conceptualization and measurement, including conceptual clarity and face validity, age appropriate measures, and psychometric rigor. In addition, constructs and measures need to be presented in ways that are understandable to policy makers and the public and that work across varied subgroups and levels of governance. Ideally, comparable measures will be used for indicators, for program evaluation, and in basic research studies of child and adolescent development.