The Survey on Flourishing: Measuring Subjective Well-Being in an Adolescent Sample

Abstract Background Adolescent subjective well-being is a topic that has gained significant focus over recent years. This focus is reflected in the formation of measurement tools and interventions used to better understand and improve adolescent mental health. While these are important steps, there still exist problems related to adolescent subjective well-being measurement. Notably, current measurement tools are limited in their content, applicability to various populations, and in their accessibility. Aims The purpose of this paper is to examine the psychometric properties of the Survey on Flourishing (SURF) when used with a nationally representative adolescent sample from the United States. The SURF aims to address some of the issues with current adolescent subjective well-being measurement tools. Method A nationally representative US sample of 334 participants participated in the present study. We examined the reliability and validity of the SURF by examining its internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. We also examined the factor structure of the SURF using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results The SURF demonstrated high internal consistency (α = .92), strong positive correlation with convergent measures, and a weak negative correlation with a discriminant measure. A one-factor model best fits the observed data. Conclusion The SURF demonstrated good psychometric properties and addresses several of the problems that exist in current measures. The SURF is a useful and effective measure of adolescent subjective well-being.