Measuring flourishing for transitional youth aging out of foster care in the United States: Factor structure and invariance of the flourishing index

Mental health field is shifting toward a greater focus on the presence of mental health beyond the assessment and treatment of mental illness. Flourishing is an emerging concept that captures the ultimate health and well-being in multiple dimensions. The knowledge of youth flourishing is crucial to promoting the mental health of all youths beyond those with mental illness. Despite the increased interest in youth flourishing, limited studies examined flourishing among disadvantaged youth. Moreover, a limited number of validated measures exist that can accurately measure flourishing for marginalized youth of different demographics. This paper presents the results from the Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (FA) of the adolescent version of the Flourishing Index using the data collected from youth aging out of foster care (18-24 years old) who participated in the Flourishing After Foster Care study, a national survey of 379 transitional youth aging out of foster care. Additionally, we examined measurement invariance between the transitional youth of different sexes [male (n=256) vs female (n=89)], race [White (n=272) vs youth of color (n=83)], and sexual orientation [heterosexual (n=282) vs sexual minority (n=92)]. The results from the FAs supported a one-dimensional model with 10 items, which showed excellent fit (CFI=0.985, TLI=0.980, RMSEA=0.054, SRMR=0.021). Measurement invariance was supported based on sex and sexual orientation but not on race. Partial invariance was supported based on race with the exclusion of one item related to delayed gratification. Future research should build on these findings to further explore flourishing indicators for youths across different identities. • The findings from the Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFAs) indicated a strong unidimensional latent structure for the youth flourishing construct, demonstrating excellent fit indices. • Measurement invariance was confirmed for gender and sexual orientation; however, it was only partially supported for race, indicating a lack of full scalar invariance. • White youth had a higher intercept (5.803) compared to youth of color (4.858), suggesting that, at equivalent levels of latent flourishing, White youth systematically reported higher scores on this item, indicating potential measurement bias in how delayed gratification is expressed or interpreted across racial/ethnic groups. • Further research is necessary to enhance our understanding of youth flourishing, particularly in developing culturally sensitive measures that reflect the perspectives of marginalized youth to better inform the development and evaluation of interventions designed for youth flourishing.