Multidimensional Measure Of Well-being Research Articles

Towards a multidimensional measure of well-being: cross-cultural support through the Italian validation of the well-being profile

BackgroundThe Well-being Profile (WB-Pro) is a multi-item and multidimensional instrument with strong psychometric properties and a solid theoretical grounding. It includes aspects of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being that can be used at the individual and social levels.MethodWe developed the Italian version through back-translation procedures. The aim of this study is to validate the WB-Pro in Italian as well as to better understand its multidimensionality through bifactor analysis. A sample of 1451 participants (910 = women, 62.7%; age range: 18–70, M-age = 32.34, SD-age = 13.64) was involved.ResultsThe 15-factor structure was confirmed with CFA and ESEM and was invariant across gender, age, and education. We examined convergent and discriminant validity and a bifactorial representation. Short versions of the WB-Pro were tested.DiscussionEven though a few items of the Italian version of the WB-Pro might benefit from revision (e.g., clear-thinking scale), this study confirms the theoretical and empirical strength of the WB-Pro.ConclusionsThis study supports the WB-Pro validity and usefulness in studying well-being and for professional psychological applications to assess well-being in both individuals and groups.

Contemplative Practices Behavior Is Positively Associated with Well-Being in Three Global Multi-Regional Stanford WELL for Life Cohorts.

Positive associations between well-being and a single contemplative practice (e.g., mindfulness meditation) are well documented, yet prior work may have underestimated the strength of the association by omitting consideration of multiple and/or alternative contemplative practices. Moreover, little is known about how contemplative practice behavior (CPB) impacts different dimensions of well-being. This study investigates the relationship of CPB, consisting of four discrete practices (embodied somatic-observing, non-reactive mindfulness, self-compassion, and compassion for others), with multiple dimensions of well-being. As with other canonical lifestyle behaviors, multiple contemplative practices can be integrated into one’s daily routine. Thus, it is critical to holistically consider these behaviors, extending them beyond a simple uni-dimensional measure (e.g., daily mindfulness meditation practice). We developed an integrative measure of four types of contemplative practice and found it to be significantly associated with a multi-dimensional measure of well-being. Importantly, our findings were from three large global multi-regional cohorts and compared against better-understood lifestyle behaviors (physical activity). Data were drawn from California/San Francisco Bay Area, (n = 6442), Hangzhou City (n = 10,268), and New Taipei City (n = 3033). In all three cohorts, we found statistically significant (p < 0.05) positive associations between CPB and well-being, both overall and with all of the constituent domains of well-being, comparable to or stronger than the relationship with physical activity across most well-being outcomes. These findings provide robust and cross-cultural evidence for a positive association between CPB and well-being, illuminate dimensions of well-being that could be most influenced by CPB, and suggest CPB may be useful to include as part of fundamental lifestyle recommendations for health and well-being.

A multidimensional measure of wellbeing among youth: a cross-sectional study of the Palestinian refugee youth in Lebanon

BackgroundIncreasing refugee populations worldwide highlight the need for development indicators that cover refugees, especially as they tend to be excluded from national statistics. Refugee youth face double exclusion, as most wellbeing indices are not youth-specific. We developed a youth wellbeing index (YWI) for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (PRL) and Palestinian refugees from Syria (PRS) living in Lebanon, with the aim of providing a snapshot of youth wellbeing to inform evidence-based youth-specific development strategies. MethodsThe YWI was developed and its data generated using information from the 2015 survey of PRL and PRS, which was approved by the American University of Beirut Institutional Review Board. The wellbeing of PRL (n=3940) and PRS (n=1581) aged 15–29 was measured using the YWI, which examines five wellbeing dimensions: educational attainment, health, housing, active education or employment, and access to information. Scores for each of the five dimensions are scaled to [0, 1], and YWI is their arithmetic mean. The data enable us to look at the YWI by gender, by camp residence, and by narrower age bands to detect any generational differences within youth. Findings are reported using sampling weights for representativeness. Findings4 years after displacement (2011–2015), PRS youth showed lower levels of wellbeing (YWI=0·56, 95% CI 0·55–0·57) than PRL youth (YWI=0·65, 95% CI 0·64–0·67). Although money-metric poverty was significantly higher inside than outside camps for both PRL youth (inside camps, 75·00%, 95% CI 71·55–78·15; outside camps, 61·98%, 55·26–68·27) and PRS youth (inside camps, 93·89%, 90·56–96·1; ; outside camps, 88·72%, 85·35–91·39), there was no such disparity in the YWI for PRL youth (inside camps, YWI=0·65, 95% CI 0·63–0·66; outside camps, 0·66, 0·62–0·69) or PRS youth (inside camps, 0·55, 0·54–0·56; outside camps, 0·57, 0·54–0·59). Young male refugees had significantly higher YWI (PRL, 0·66, 95% CI 0·65–0·68; PRS, 0·57, 0·56–0·59) than young female refugees (PRL, 0·64, 0·62–0·66; PRS, 0·55, 0·53–0·56). Young female PRL and PRS scored significantly higher for education (PRL, YWI=0·60; PRS, 0·61) than young male refugees from these populations (PRL, 0·48; PRS, 0·47), but significantly lower on active education or employment (PRL, 0·45; PRS, 0·18) than the young male refugees (PRL, 0·72; PRS, 0·47). Older PRS scored higher on the YWI education dimension (20–24 years age group, 0·61; 25–29 years age group, 0·50) than their PRL peers (20–24 years age group, 0·53; 25–29 years age group, 0·45), but the reverse was true for the 15–19 years age group (PRL, 0·60; PRS, 0·53). InterpretationResidence inside versus outside camps showed no significant differences in wellbeing based on the YWI, whereas money-metric poverty was higher inside camps, which suggests a need to move beyond assistance policies based on money-metric measures alone. The female edge in educational attainment is reversed when considering active education or employment, signalling the need for gender-specific strategies for the school-to-work transition for both PRL and PRS. The reversal of the educational edge of PRS over PRL in the 15–19 years age group is another concerning indicator of the cost of conflict for PRS that persists even four years after their displacement. FundingUNRWA funded the 2015 survey data collection and the Economic Research Forum funded the development of the YWI.

A Multi-Dimensional Measure of Well-being among Youth: The Case of Palestinian Refugee Youth in Lebanon

This paper aims to develop a youth well-being index that builds on the Human Development Index and the human development approach of Amartya Sen and focuses on the well-being of young Palestinian refugees from Lebanon (PRL) and Palestinian refugees from Syria living in Lebanon (PRS). The Youth Well-being Index (YWBI) expands existing well-being measurements to cover non-nationals for the first time with a focus on young people in an attempt to develop more inclusive national and international strategies and policies. The YWBI was developed to address the specificities of refugee youth to allow international humanitarian and development agencies to compare aspects of refugee well-being across different fields and comparable countries. Using micro data from the 2015 socio-economic survey of Palestinian refugees conducted in Lebanon, the newly devised index measures well-being along various dimensions including education, health, housing, employment and access to information. The index results across sub-regions and refugee groups suggest that a richer and more holistic measure of the human development of refugee youth could be used for a more efficient and equitable targeting of scarce assistance funds.

Systems Thinking to Understand National Well-Being from a Human Capital Perspective

Well-being has become an important policy goal to replace gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator of national progress. Several multidimensional metrics and indicators of well-being have been developed mostly based on the four-capital model that includes natural, economic, human and social capital. These multidimensional measures of well-being, however, are highly categorical and lack a systems perspective that focuses on underlying mechanisms of the metrics and the interconnections between them. This study aims at bringing a systems thinking approach to understanding and measuring national well-being, particularly from a human capital perspective. For this purpose, we employ a qualitative systems mapping approach and identify the direct or indirect relationships between the well-being indicators related to human capital. The results show that the human capital system is governed by several reinforcing feedback loops through economic progress, health and life expectancy, which gives a central role to human capital to enhance well-being. There are balancing loops, however, that may have adverse effects on human capital formation and well-being, for instance through migration and ageing. Future studies can focus on the other three subsystems in the four-capital model, and on quantifying the relationships between different dimensions of well-being.

Supplemental Material for The Well-Being Profile (WB-Pro): Creating a Theoretically Based Multidimensional Measure of Well-Being to Advance Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice

Supplemental Material for The Well-Being Profile (WB-Pro): Creating a Theoretically Based Multidimensional Measure of Well-Being to Advance Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice

Understanding Where We Are Well: Neighborhood-Level Social and Environmental Correlates of Well-Being in the Stanford Well for Life Study.

Individual well-being is a complex concept that varies among and between individuals and is impacted by individual, interpersonal, community, organizational, policy and environmental factors. This research explored associations between select environmental characteristics measured at the ZIP code level and individual well-being. Participants (n = 3288, mean age = 41.4 years, 71.0% female, 57.9% white) were drawn from a registry of individuals who completed the Stanford WELL for Life Scale (SWLS), a 76-question online survey that asks about 10 domains of well-being: social connectedness, lifestyle and daily practices, physical health, stress and resilience, emotional and mental health, purpose and meaning, sense of self, financial security and satisfaction, spirituality and religiosity, and exploration and creativity. Based on a nationally-representative 2018 study of associations between an independent well-being measure and county-level characteristics, we selected twelve identical or analogous neighborhood (ZIP-code level) indicators to test against the SWLS measure and its ten constituent domains. Data were collected from secondary sources to describe socio-economic (median household income, percent unemployment, percent child poverty), demographic (race/ethnicity), and physical environment (commute by bicycle and public transit), and healthcare (number of healthcare facilities, percent mammogram screenings, percent preventable hospital stays). All continuous neighborhood factors were re-classified into quantile groups. Linear mixed models were fit to assess relationships between each neighborhood measure and each of the ten domains of well-being, as well as the overall SWLS well-being measure, and were adjusted for spatial autocorrelation and individual-level covariates. In models exploring associations between the overall SWLS score and neighborhood characteristics, six of the twelve neighborhood factors exhibited significant differences between quantile groups (p < 0.05). All of the ten SWLS domains had at least one instance of significant (p < 0.05) variation across quantile groups for a neighborhood factor; stress and resilience, emotional and mental health, and financial security had the greatest number of significant associations (6/12 factors), followed by physical health (5/12 factors) and social connectedness (4/12 factors). All but one of the neighborhood factors (number of Federally Qualified Health Centers) showed at least one significant association with a well-being domain. Among the neighborhood factors with the most associations with well-being domains were rate of preventable hospital stays (7/10 domains), percent holding bachelor’s degrees (6/10 domains), and median income and percent with less than high school completion (5/10 domains). These observational insights suggest that neighborhood factors are associated with individuals’ overall self-rated well-being, though variation exists among its constituent domains. Further research that employs such multi-dimensional measures of well-being is needed to determine targets for intervention at the neighborhood level that may improve well-being at both the individual and, ultimately, neighborhood levels.

Positive body image is positively associated with hedonic (emotional) and eudaimonic (psychological and social) well-being in British adults

ABSTRACTStudies examining associations between positive body image and well-being have used a limited array of measures of each construct. To rectify this, we asked an online sample of 1148 U.K. adults to complete a range of measures of positive body image (body appreciation, body image flexibility, body pride, body acceptance from others) and a multi-dimensional measure of well-being (emotional, psychological, and social). Results showed that, once the effects of age and body mass index (BMI) had been accounted for, body appreciation significantly predicted all dimensions of well-being. Other positive body image measures emerged as significant predictors, but patterns of associations were mixed across sex and well-being dimension. Additional analyses showed that women had significantly lower scores than men on most body image measures, and that BMI was negatively associated with all body image measures. These results have implications for the promotion of well-being, which we discuss.

The Cost of Well-Being

It is by now common knowledge that in switching from GDP to alternative, multidimensional, measures of collective well-being one can provide a better account of a country’s socio-economic conditions. Such a gain, however, comes at the price of losing output-to-input type of link between well-being and the resources necessary to make it available. Since well-being measures are not meant to be only an exercise in documentation, but also to inform policies and priorities, we propose a method to build a measure of well-being in the form of a single index, as for GDP, which takes into account: (1) the social and environmental costs, not considered in the GDP, and (2) the use of conventional resources (capital and labour), not considered in the currently available multidimensional measures of well-being. We use a Data Envelopment Analysis type of model, integrated with Principal Component Analysis, to evaluate OECD countries’ relative efficiency in providing well-being. Our results show that the costs of producing well-being have a large and significant impact on the resulting index of well-being. Therefore, high efficiency in providing well-being and high income cannot be considered a proxy to each other. In addition, it is shown that countries react differently to the different costs of well-being: poor countries are, on average, more efficient in terms of conventional inputs (labour and capital), while rich countries have higher efficiency indices relative to social and environmental costs. The close to zero correlation between GDP and well-being indices for rich countries provides new support to the “Easterlin paradox”.

La Certeza Incierta De Los Rankings De Felicidad (The Uncertain Certainty of Happiness Rankings)

La simpleza de los rankings mundiales de la felicidad ha facilitado su acogida en los debates sobre politicas publicas, que estan deseosos por incorporar nuevas medidas del bienestar de las sociedades. Lamentablemente, estos han sido interpretados de forma poco cuidadosa, tratando las diferencias entre paises como si tuvieran una certeza que en la practica no tienen. En la presente Clave de Politica Publica mostramos que es posible reconocer la incertidumbre de estos rankings utilizando intervalos de confianza para los promedios nacionales de felicidad y definiendo puntos de referencia, sin por ello sacrificar la simpleza que hace tan atractivos a los rankings mundiales de felicidad. Tomando cuenta solo las diferencias estadisticamente significativas respecto a Chile, observamos que las conclusiones obtenidas no exageran las diferencias entre paises.Global happiness rankings have flourished during the past decade, getting increased attention in public policy debates throughout the world. Policymakers and academics are demanding new measures of societal well-being that go beyond income. International organizations such as the UN and OECD are supporting the development of multidimensional measures of well-being, including happiness indicators together with moretraditional indicators such as GDP per capita. The media have been very receptive of the newly developed happiness indicators and published numerous colorful maps that illustrate national levels of happiness across the world. Unfortunately, these rankings and maps have been repeatedly misinterpreted in public policy debates, treating differences between countries as if they were estimated without uncertainty. Ignoring the uncertainty underlying happiness rankings inevitably leads us to exaggerate differences between countries. That is, countries ranked in different positions in a happiness ranking may be treated as if they were statistically different from each other when they are not. Therefore, we argue that happiness rankings – whether presented in maps, figures, or tables – should always account for uncertainty by including confidence intervals and a reference point to assess statistical differences across countries. Using the World Values Survey cross-national data on life satisfaction for 91 countries, we illustrate how to build a happiness ranking that correctly account for uncertainty. We take Chile as a reference point to make comparisons, and repaint the world map of happiness by classifying countries as statistically happier, unhappier or not different from Chile. The results suggest that when looking for lessons to become a happier society, Chile should mainly look to its Latin American neighbors, rather than to many higher income countries around the world that rank above Chile in the happiness ranking. Overall, these results suggest a serious risk of neglecting uncertainty when using happiness ranking to inform public policy debates.

Youth with Disabilities: A Standardized Self-Portrait of How They are Faring

There are approximately 10 million youth living with a disability in the United States. While their educational needs have been increasingly successfully addressed for the past quarter century, concern has been emerging that other priorities are being overlooked, especially those needed for successful independent living after they leave school. Thus, the primary purpose of this research project was to assess levels of health and well-being in a sample of youth with disabilities, in order to gain insight into their lives and self-perceptions. To accomplish this, 90 youths with disabilities were interviewed using the Child Health and Illness Profile-Adolescent Edition, a standardized instrument that incorporates multidimensional measures of well-being. Results indicate that these youth have high levels of self-esteem, self-satisfaction, academic achievement, and overall resiliency. They also report, however, feelings of social isolation, and higher levels of individual risk taking behaviors and unemployment. Recommendations for future research and practice implications are provided.

Multidimensional Measures of Well-Being: Standard of Living and Quality of Life Across Countries

Using Sen’s capability approach, we propose to measure two components of well-being—standard of living and quality of life. Unlike the UNDP Human Development Index, the two indices do not mix measures of resource availability and of functioning and capability. The empirical results for 170 countries are based on two multidimensional analyses, the Totally Fuzzy Analysis and the Factorial Analysis of Correspondences. The paper also compares our results with the HDI and GDP per capita. It focuses on Africa, presents policy implications, and discusses aggregation and redundancy in multidimensional indices.

On the Arbitrariness and Robustness of Multi-Dimensional Poverty Rankings

It is often argued that multi-dimensional measures of well-being and poverty -- such as those based on the capability approach and related views -- are ad hoc. Rankings based on them are not, for this reason, robust to changes in the selection of weights used. In this paper, it is argued that the extent of potential arbitrariness and the range of issues relating to robustness have been underestimated in this context. Several issues relating to both the identification of the poor and the use of dimension- specific data are distinguished. For illustrative purposes, these distinct issues are discussed in the context of the inter-provincial ranking of poverty in South Africa in 1995-1996. It turns out that this ranking is fairly robust, and that an important policy-relevant result involving a comparison between KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State in 'income'/'expenditure' and 'human' poverty rankings is reinforced rather than undermined by checking for robustness. Even when the rankings are not robust, the discussion suggests that they may inform policy debates.

Measuring Morale: Note on Use of Factor Scores

This research examined how a multidimensional measure of well-being was used in studies of successful aging. Probability methods yielded a sample of 171 people who were at least 65 years of age. The Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (revised) was contrasted in summary and factor form with several aspects of perceived health. It had been anticipated that the magnitude of association between perceived health, a summared morale score, and the morale factor-derived scores would vary. The data partially supported this expectation.