Current recommendations on the selection of measures for well-being

Tyler J VanderWeele; Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald; Paul Allin; Colin Farrelly; Guy Fletcher; Donald E Frederick; Jon Hall; John F Helliwell; Eric S Kim; William A Lauinger; Matthew T Lee; Sonja Lyubomirsky; Seth Margolis; Eileen McNeely; Neil Messer; Louis Tay; Vish Viswanath; Dorota Węziak-Białowolska; Laura D Kubzansky

doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106004

Current recommendations on the selection of measures for well-being

Prev Med. 2020 Feb 1:133:106004. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106004. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Tyler J VanderWeele¹, Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald², Paul Allin³, Colin Farrelly⁴, Guy Fletcher⁵, Donald E Frederick⁶, Jon Hall⁷, John F Helliwell⁸, Eric S Kim⁹, William A Lauinger¹⁰, Matthew T Lee¹¹, Sonja Lyubomirsky¹², Seth Margolis¹³, Eileen McNeely¹⁴, Neil Messer¹⁵, Louis Tay¹⁶, Vish Viswanath¹⁷, Dorota Węziak-Białowolska¹⁸, Laura D Kubzansky¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: tvanderw@hsph.harvard.edu.
² Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: ctrudel@hsph.harvard.edu.
³ Imperial College London, London, UK. Electronic address: p.allin@imperial.ac.uk.
⁴ Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Electronic address: farrelly@queensu.ca.
⁵ University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. Electronic address: Guy.Fletcher@ed.ac.uk.
⁶ Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁷ United Nations Development Programme, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: jonathan.hall@undp.org.
⁸ University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁹ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: eskim@hsph.harvard.edu.
¹⁰ Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: LauingerW@chc.edu.
¹¹ Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: matthew_lee@fas.harvard.edu.
¹² University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA. Electronic address: sonja.lyubomirsky@ucr.edu.
¹³ University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: emcneely@hsph.harvard.edu.
¹⁵ University of Winchester, Winchester, UK. Electronic address: Neil.Messer@winchester.ac.uk.
¹⁶ Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA. Electronic address: stay@purdue.edu.
¹⁷ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: vish_viswanath@dfci.harvard.edu.
¹⁸ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: doweziak@hsph.harvard.edu.
¹⁹ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: lkubzans@hsph.harvard.edu.

PMID: 32006530
DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106004

Abstract

Measures of well-being have proliferated over the past decades. Very little guidance has been available as to which measures to use in what contexts. This paper provides a series of recommendations, based on the present state of knowledge and the existing measures available, of what measures might be preferred in which contexts. The recommendations came out of an interdisciplinary workshop on the measurement of well-being. The recommendations are shaped around the number of items that can be included in a survey, and also based on the differing potential contexts and purposes of data collection such as, for example, government surveys, or multi-use cohort studies, or studies specifically about psychological well-being. The recommendations are not intended to be definitive, but to stimulate discussion and refinement, and to provide guidance to those relatively new to the study of well-being.

Keywords: Flourishing; Happiness; Life satisfaction; Measurement; Optimism; Psychology; Public health; Purpose in life; Surveys; Well-being.

Publication types

Review