Youth life satisfaction measures: a review

The burgeoning field of positive psychology has highlighted the need to discover what makes life worth living. Within this framework is the exploration of how youths perceive their lives and achieve happiness. Recent research demonstrates that perception of life satisfaction (LS) among youths has important implications for their psychological, social, and educational functioning. An important part of understanding how youths perceive their lives is the incorporation of measurement of life satisfaction, and this article provides a review of the extant measures of youth life satisfaction. Following systematic literature searches, empirical studies (n = 47) of youth LS measures are reviewed. The review provides an overview of each instrument outlining its normative samples, reliability, and validity. Recommended future research directions are briefly discussed.