Psychometric properties of the Danish student well-being questionnaire assessed in >250,000 student responders

Background: Well-being is considered a prerequisite for learning. The Danish Ministry of Education initiated the development of a new 40-item student well-being questionnaire in 2014 to monitor well-being among all Danish public school students on a yearly basis. The aim of this study was to investigate the basic psychometric properties of this questionnaire. Methods: We used the data from the 2015 Danish student well-being survey for 268,357 students in grades 4–9 (about 85% of the study population). Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analyses, confirmatory factor analyses and Cronbach’s α reliability measures were used in the analyses. Results: The factor analyses did not unambiguously support one particular factor structure. However, based on the basic descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analyses, confirmatory factor analyses, the semantics of the individual items and Cronbach’s α, we propose a four-factor structure including 27 of the 40 items originally proposed. The four scales measure school connectedness, learning self-efficacy, learning environment and classroom management. Two bullying items and two psychosomatic items should be considered separately, leaving 31 items in the questionnaire. Conclusions: The proposed four-factor structure addresses central aspects of well-being, which, if used constructively, may support public schools’ work to increase levels of student well-being.