Completed research

Southbank Centre Wellbeing Scale

PI: Dominik Havsteen-Franklin 

This project produced a statistically validated wellbeing measure for young people, using an innovative comic-strip format, developed in collaboration with Southbank Centre.Conventional wellbeing measures often perform poorly with young people due to adult-oriented language and aversive formats. The Southbank scale offers an engaging alternative that young people are willing to complete honestly, generating reliable data. Factor analysis revealed two main factors—Positive Social and Creative Engagement, and Negative Affect Indicators—indicating that participants experience wellbeing holistically rather than through the six separate conceptual domains initially hypothesised.The scale demonstrates strong psychometric properties and large effect sizes and is freely available for non-commercial use. It now serves as a model for our wider European research on youth mental health and creative practice.

Living Logic Model 

PI: Dominik Havsteen-Franklin

The Living Logic Model is a novel evaluation framework drawing on complexity theory to accommodate emergent, non-linear dynamics in arts-based interventions, developed in collaboration with the p_ART_icipate research consortium.Standard logic models typically assume predictable causal chains. Arts-based interventions, by contrast, often operate by creating conditions for change rather than determining specific outcomes, with effects emerging through interaction between participants, practitioners and contexts. The Living Logic Model offers tools for understanding and evaluating interventions that do not fit conventional assumptions, and is being used by practitioners designing programmes, services evaluating provision, and funders seeking to understand what they are supporting.