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ARS Home » Plains Area » Mandan, North Dakota » Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #434845
Research Project: Transdisciplinary Research that Improves the Productivity and Sustainability of Northern Great Plains Agroecosystems and the Well-Being of the Communities They Serve

Location: Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory

Title: Soil Health and Well-Being: Developing a reliable and valid psychometric scale to measure intangible benefits and social outcomes of agroecosystem management

Author
item Friedrichsen, Claire
item Hammond Wagner, Courtney
item PEPLINSKI, HANNAH - University Of Vermont
item Jones, William

Submitted to: LTAR Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/19/2026
Publication Date: 5/19/2026
Citation: Friedrichsen, C.N., Hammond Wagner, C.R., Peplinski, H., Jones, W.D. 2026. Soil Health and Well-Being: Developing a reliable and valid psychometric scale to measure intangible benefits and social outcomes of agroecosystem management. LTAR Annual Meeting. 1.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Subjective well-being is theorized as both a key driver and outcome of environmental management and quality, such as soil health management. However, it is difficult to quantitatively measure the intangible benefits and social outcomes of soil health management. Subjective well-being is context specific and therefore task specific psychometric scales need to be developed to measure direct connections between environmental management and its specific impact on an individual and their larger community. Following established psychometric scale development methodology, we developed an 18-item Soil Health and Well-Being (SHWB) scale to measure social outcomes for the perceived individual and community well-being scales. We find the SHWB scale reliable as evidenced through test-retest agreement and exhibits construct validity through comparison with existing well-being instruments, as well as evidencing the ability to differentiate between groups of soil health practice adopters and non-adopters. The SHWB is valuable to track benefits of soil health over time, provide quantification of social sustainability indicators, and to communicate intangible benefits of soil health management to producers and policy makers.