Key research aim: To develop the first robust, sensitive, and standardised scale, to longitudinally assess children’s emotional wellbeing in the context of primary-secondary school transitions.

In doing so, the Primary-Secondary school transitions Emotional Wellbeing Scale (P-S WELLS) will be novel in its:

-Approach (i.e. asking children about their feelings towards the changes they are negotiating in context)

-Longitudinal design and operationalisation

-Ability to overcome poor psychometric properties shown in measures to date

-Ability to demonstrate a vital shift in the paradigm of researching emotional wellbeing in the context of primary-secondary school transitions

What are the key aims of the PS-WELLS project?

To meet this overarching research aim, we will…

1) Develop a clear theoretical and conceptual definition of emotional wellbeing in the context of primary-secondary school transitions, which we will operationalise through the design and validation of P-S WELLS.

2) Pilot and conduct longitudinal psychometric assessment and longitudinal validation, on two discrete samples, across two primary-secondary school transitions periods (2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years).

This will ensure that P-S WELLS is stable and sensitive to be able to clearly capture change over time.

3) Develop a P-S WELLS manual for use in schools, including how to administer, score and interpret the scale. This will build capacity for educational practitioners to obtain immediate insight into the emotional wellbeing of their class in the context of primary-secondary school transitions.

4) …and importantly, to consult transition-age children (Year 6 (P7 in Scotland) and Year 7 (S1 in Scotland), educational practitioners, and other subject-matter experts at every stage.

Why is this work needed?

Primary-secondary school transitions, which children make at age eleven in the UK, are a critical developmental period.

During this time, children negotiate multiple and simultaneous adaptations, or “transitions” across concurrent academic, social, psychological, environmental, and personal domains. These transitions can be simultaneously exciting and worrying; and require ongoing additional support from significant others within a child’s ecosystem. This is in line with Jindal-Snape’s (2016) Multiple and Multi-dimensional Transitions Theory, which posits that transitions are ongoing, dynamic and multi-dimensional; MMT theory underpins the P-S WELLS project.

Children with poor emotional wellbeing leading up to, and following, primary-secondary school transitions, are more likely to experience:

  • Increased educational disruption

  • Poor academic attainment

  • Social maladjustment

  • Low self-esteem

  • Declines in school connectedness

…all of which can lead to poor life chances, mental health difficulties, and exacerbation of existing social inequalities.

What methodological gap is P-S WELLS addressing?

A recent literature review (Bagnall & Jindal-Snape, 2023) found that existing measures designed to assess primary-secondary school transitions and/or emotional wellbeing had these limitations:

1. Do not take into account the longitudinal and dynamic nature of primary-secondary school transitions and emotional wellbeing

2. Use mostly, or only, negative terminology, which can send a leading and fearful message about how children should be feeling.

3. Use inaccessible or age-inappropriate formats.

4. Do not assess both transitions and emotional wellbeing in a single scale.

5. Inconsistent reliability and validity assessment (especially when measures are adapted).

6. Key constructs (transitions and emotional wellbeing) are not conceptualised and/or theoretically defined.

Through careful design and validation, PS-WELLS aims to ameliorate these shortcomings.

Glossary of key terms:

Cognitive interview: a research method where participants and a researcher talk through draft questionnaire questions as they are completed. This is to establish readability and interpretation, and to evaluate whether each question generates the intended information.

Delphi study: a methodology used to gain consensus on an unknown matter from expert stakeholders. Several rounds of focus groups and questionnaires are undertaken, that become more and more specific in their enquiry.

Domain: a broad topic covered within a questionnaire.

Item: each domain will be broken down into items, which are specific questions designed to gain information about an element of the domain.

Longitudinal: this refers to research carried out over a long period of time, usually with the same participants, to find out whether the findings change or whether they are consistent.

Pilot test: before a study is carried out, a pilot study is conducted as a test, in order to refine how the main study is carried out. This will usually be of a smaller scale.

Psychometric: a quantitative (numerical) measure of an individual’s characteristics, thoughts, or behaviours. This is the type of data produced by a questionnaire like PS-WELLS.

Scale: a standardised system of measuring something within a questionnaire.

Transitions: periods of change within a person’s life, such as the change from primary to secondary school.