Life skills assessment instruments: a systematic review of psychometric evidence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62009/bemviver.2764.9679n1/2026/575/p20-36Keywords:
Life Skills, Systematic review, Psychometrics, Validity, ReliabilityAbstract
Life skills comprise a set of social, cognitive, and emotional competencies that are essential for health promotion, the prevention of risk behaviors, and human development. As programs aimed at teaching these skills have expanded, so too has the need for valid and reliable instruments to assess them. This study aimed to analyze the psychometric evidence of instruments developed or cross-culturally adapted to measure life skills. A systematic literature review was conducted following the recommendations of the PRISMA guidelines. Searches were performed in the PsycINFO, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and PubMed databases, considering studies published between 2016 and 2021. At the end of the selection process, 17 studies were included in the review. The results indicated a predominance of instruments developed in Asian and European countries, mainly in sports and school settings, followed by studies focused on the prevention of alcohol and other drug use. Factorial validity was the most frequently reported source of validity evidence, whereas internal consistency was the primary estimate of reliability. The findings indicate that, although interest in measuring life skills has increased, further psychometric evidence is still needed, as well as the development of instruments applicable across different contexts and populations.
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