Measuring adolescent well-being: the development of a standardized measure for adolescents participating in orphans and vulnerable children programming

Abstract

Orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) programs in developing countries aim to improve overall well-being of OVC. However, traditional OVC development programs cover multiple programmatic areas (i.e., health, economic, education), and measuring the net effects of these interventions on a child has been exceptionally difficult at the field level. To improve monitoring and evaluation of OVC programs, the authors used a scientific process to develop a self-reported OVC Well-being Tool (OWT), for adolescents aged 13–18 years. The OWT was piloted through a five-country Catholic Relief Services OVC project to 890 adolescents and was validated against the Children's Hope Scale and evaluation survey data. Advanced statistical analyses, along with feedback from the pilot countries, were used to further refine the OWT. The resulting tool is 36 questions long and takes approximately 20 minutes to administer. Results can be used to monitor OVC programs over time, identify trends, and actively engage OVC in the monitoring of the projects.