Indices of social well-being applicable to children—a review

The World Health Organization has identified social well-being along with physical and emotional well-being as a major component of health. Operational definitions of social well-being in children are found among developmental screening tests, socioemotional instruments and specific social well-being measures. The objective of this paper is to present criteria for assessing measures of social well-being and to apply these criteria to instruments developed for general (noninstitutionalized) groups of children. The criteria include: general applicability and acceptability, balance in orientation, amenability to index construction, variability, reliability, validity, responsiveness to child development, distinctness from emotional well-being and estimation of possible bias due to proxy (parent) respondents. The dimensions of social well-being covered by available instruments include interpersonal skills and social participation.