Monitor what matters: a scoping review of child wellbeing indicators across OECD countries - Dataset
Description
This dataset is the result of a large scoping review on child well-being indicators in OECD countries and accompanies a manuscript with the same title. Background: Governments in OECD countries increasingly rely on population-level indicators and dashboards to monitor child wellbeing, guide budgeting, and demonstrate accountability, yet the scope, equity, developmental coverage, and cultural relevance of these monitoring systems have not been systematically assessed. Methods: We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed and grey literature on population-level child and youth wellbeing indicators in OECD countries (Jan 1, 2013–Dec 31, 2024), charted against the OECD Child Wellbeing Framework. Two reviewers independently screened records; indicators were charted by domain, influence level, population group, age, framing (positive/negative), and country. Descriptive analyses summarised distributions and trends; an iterative qualitative process grouped concepts into domains. Findings: From 605 publications (512 peer-reviewed; 93 grey) we extracted 5,873 indicators encompassing 1,976 unique concepts across 35 recurring domains. Peer-reviewed literature emphasized emotional and psychosocial constructs, while grey literature increasingly prioritized system-performance and material/economic indicators, particularly after 2020. Adolescents aged 10–14 were most frequently measured; early childhood (1–4) and late youth (20–24) were substantially under-measured. Underserved populations were rarely the focus. Most publications originated from North American and European contexts, with non-Western OECD members under-represented. Rights-based, identity-related, and culturally grounded domains remained sparsely measured relative to emotional and physical constructs. Interpretation: Population-level monitoring of child wellbeing has expanded substantially but remains concentrated in Western contexts, developmentally skewed toward adolescence, and poorly representative of Indigenous, racialized, and sexual minority children. Conceptual breadth has outpaced measurement depth, with rights-based and structural dimensions of wellbeing under-specified. To close these gaps, future monitoring systems should embed equity stratifiers as default components of core indicator sets, extend measurement into early childhood and late youth, and co-develop culturally grounded indicators with children, families, and communities through a core-plus-modular architecture. Funding: This study was funded by the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and the BMO Financial Group Endowed Research Fund in collaboration with the University of Calgary’s One Child Every Child Initiative, funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. The funders had no role in the study design, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Institutions
- University of CalgaryAlberta, Calgary