SLPOtherResearch in developmental disabilities2025

Measures of emotional well-being for individuals with intellectual disabilities: A scoping review of reviews.

Sophie Hall, Jessica B Koslouski, Caroline G Richter and 1 others

PMID 39923277

WHAT IT FOUND

Emotional well-being is usually measured inside quality-of-life tools for people with intellectual disabilities.

Of 411 items in 14 measures, 39 assessed emotional well-being, and only two assessed goal pursuit.

Key findings

01Most included reviews focused on quality of life rather than emotional well-being alone, and the 10 reviews yielded 14 measures containing emotional well-being-related items.

02Across 411 items in the 14 measures, 39 assessed an emotional well-being component; two assessed goal pursuit.

03Three measures were designed for the full spectrum of intellectual disability severity, and fewer measures reported use with severe or profound intellectual disability.

STILL TO COME

How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs

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What it does not show

The review included only review articles, not original empirical studies, so it may have missed measures reported only in primary research. Only a small number of reviews and measures were included, so the map of available tools is limited. Some potentially relevant measures could not be located. The search was limited to peer-reviewed English reviews published from 2000 onward, which may exclude older or non-English measures. The review focused on subjective report measures and did not evaluate observational or physiological methods in detail. The review charted item content and measure characteristics rather than evaluating psychometric properties. Item coding was imperfect because some items may assess more than one construct.

Declared interests

The authors reported no conflicts of interest.

The easy way to misread this

Do not read these measures as validated emotional well-being tests for all people with intellectual disabilities. This review mapped items and characteristics only. Most items did not assess emotional well-being, and fewer measures were reported for severe or profound intellectual disability.

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