Instruments to measure the well-being of young children

The purpose of this report is to identify, review and assess the quality of instruments used to measure the well-being of children aged 0-3 years in a Danish context. This report is based on systematic searches in international databases. On the basis of information about the instruments, the report also recommends the most suitable instruments. The report was commissioned by the National Board of Social Services, which asked the Danish National Centre for Social Research to recommend one or more suitable tools to measure the well-being of very young children. The intention is for the tools to be included in the overall review by the National Board of Social Services of suitable, validated instruments for the social field. This report particularly identifies three suitable instruments. These are all in the form of easy-to-read questionnaires which can be completed by parents or other care persons in less than ten minutes. The three tools are 1) Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional (ASQ-SE), 2) Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Infants and Toddlers (DECA-I/T) and 3) Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure (SEAM™), Research Edition.