Coordinated Outcome-wide Analytic Methodology for Wave 2 of the Global Flourishing Study

In this article, we describe the design of the outcome-wide analyses used for examining longitudinal associations between Waves 1 and 2 of the Global Flourishing Study (GFS). We discuss the benefits of outcome-wide analyses and provide details on controlling for high-dimensional confounders, accounting for complex sampling designs, imputing missing data, conducting sensitivity analyses for unmeasured confounding, meta-analyzing effect estimates from across countries, and the reporting of results. We provide a brief illustrative example of the outcome-wide approach by estimating the association of Wave 1 sense of mastery with a wide range of Wave 2 outcomes. The example illustrates the sensitivity of results to analytic decisions, such as how different approaches to coding the predictor can sometimes yield similar or different results, and the extent to which the number of principal components can affect the results' sensitivity. We conclude by outlining the major strengths and limitations of the employed methodology.