The Most Popular wellbeing surveys for children

It is no secret that understanding the wellbeing and mental health needs of our pupils is vitally important! Children who are happy and feel safe in school learn more and are more likely to engage and reach their potential.

But, knowing where to start when it comes to promoting and measuring wellbeing in schools can feel daunting. There are many well-researched surveys and questionnaires out there that can be used to monitor many different areas of mental health and wellbeing. However, navigating these is not only a mindfield but also an extremely time intensive task for most class teachers, especially when our investigations usually start with a simple Google search.

There are three main reasons why schools may wish to measure wellbeing:

1. To provide a snapshot or ‘temperature check’ of wellbeing strengths and needs across the whole school or a particular cohort.
2. To identify specific target areas or individual students in need of more support.
3. To evidence and evaluate the impact of school programmes or interventions.

With the largest repository of research-based wellbeing surveys, our team have spent a huge amount of time validating and identifying the most wellbeing valuable surveys out there. Below we have listed 5 of the most popular surveys and questionnaires across different category areas to help you get a head start when it comes to measuring mental health and wellbeing amongst your pupils.

1. Measuring General Wellbeing

When it comes to gaining a snapshot overview of wellbeing, The Stirling Children’s Wellbeing Scale, developed by The Stirling Educational Psychology Service, can provide teachers with powerful insight into the emotional and psychological wellbeing of their pupils. This holistic and positively worded scale is a popular starting point for most educational professionals, providing insight into both the. subjective and psychological aspects of wellbeing in children aged 8 to 15 years.

You can download a FREE paper-based version of The Stirling Children’s Wellbeing Scale on the resources page of our website – Here

2. Measuring Bullying and E-Safety

Schools have a legal duty to keep children safe from bullying and harm but face the challenge of high numbers of children not sharing concerns or incidents with staff. At BounceTogether we have teamed up with Professor Wolke, ranked #2 worldwide for his research in the topic of bullying, to provide exclusive access to his Child Relationship Survey for schools, making it easy for schools to monitor and understand their community’s experience.

You can download a FREE paper-based version of The Child Relationship Survey on the resources page of our website - Here

3. Measuring Stress and Anxiety

All children will experience stress at different points throughout their education, particularly around exam season / transition periods. Whilst some stress is beneficial for the development of resilience and for academic achievement, high levels of stress can have a detrimental effect on children’s social and emotional health. It is important for schools to develop an understanding of the stressors their pupils experience as well the different buffers they may have developed to cope. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is one of the most widely used survey for measuring the perception of stress amongst children in school. It provides insight into whether children are finding their lives unpredictable, uncontrollable or are feeling overloaded, helping schools shape the best support practices for their pupils.

You can download a FREE paper-based version of The Perceived Stress Scale on the resources page of our website - Here

4. Measuring Life-satisfaction

When you ask most parents what they most want for their children growing up, the answer is likely to be, “I want them to be happy.” At BounceTogether we believe that happiness and wellbeing should be at the heart of our curriculum – happy children feel secure in their settings and are more likely to learn. But there is argument that life satisfaction as a feeling matters more than happiness by measuring quality of your life instead of the transient emotional experience of happiness.

Life satisfaction is a more robust measure of well-being because it is less subject to mood fluctuations and is associated with better physical health, higher performance, and stronger social relationships.

The KINDL surveys are popular amongst educators as psychometrically acceptable methods for assessing the health-related quality of life in children and adolescents aged 3 years or over. The survey covers six dimensions; Physical wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, self-esteem, family, friends and everyday functioning and was developed to provide flexible questions which could be answered by children of varying age groups.

You can download a FREE paper-based version of the KINDL questionnaires on the resources page of our website - Here

5. Measuring Self-Esteem

By measuring self-esteem teachers can gain insight into how pupils value and feel about themselves. Children with positive self-esteem feel confident and secure in their abilities, they are more likely to challenge themselves, learn from mistakes and ask for help when needed. However, it is not unusual for children to have trouble building and maintaining positive self-esteem and so it is important for teachers to fully understand their pupils’ experiences and individual needs so they can create a supportive and secure classroom environment that promotes positive self-esteem.

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) is one of the most widely used self-esteem measures in social science research and is widely used in education settings across 53 different nations. It is a 10-item scale that measures global self-worth by looking at both positive and negative feelings about the self.

Low self-esteem is often related within research to depression, suicide ideation, victimisation, delinquency, eating disorders and low happiness. This survey is therefore a highly valued indicator of a student's mental health; allowing staff to identify and direct help quickly to any pupils registering as having low self-esteem.

You can download a FREE paper-based version of Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale on the resources page of our website – Here

When it comes to measuring any aspect of pupil wellbeing, it is important to consider how this will work practically in your school environment. Running paper-based surveys, using a digital generator and manually evaluating the results can be a time and cost intensive task for class teachers. At BounceTogether, we want to make measuring wellbeing a stress-free and meaningful task.

Our platform contains the largest repository of evidence-based, fully researched surveys across 12 key wellbeing categories. You can view navigate these surveys, many of which are available free in paper-format, by category, key stage and area in our Survey Summary Document.

We also help minimise workload and costs with instant, presentation ready reporting that allows you to easily filter and segment findings, make comparisons over time and across different demographics, including EAL, FSM, SEND and Pupil Premium. You can generate a sample report for The Stirling Children's Wellbeing Scale to explore some real insights.

To find out more, you can always book a demo with our friendly team and discuss how our platform could help support your school wellbeing strategy.