The importance and centrality of the construct of agency is wellknown amongst social scientists. Yet, there is still little agreement on how this construct should be understood and defined, as demonstrated by the diversity of instruments that are used to investigate it. Indeed, there is no current consensus or standardized methodology to assess agency. This paper provides a synthetic overview of the studies that have evaluated and measured individuals' agency. More specifically, the purpose is to review research that quantitatively investigates the agency of adults, as well as children and youth, across different social contexts. In the process, it offers recommendations to inform future research, practice, and policy. We identified published peer-reviewed studies relating to the assessment of agency across countries and across age through a narrative literature review. The findings were grouped according to whether agency was measured in its most comprehensive conception or in a precise single domain or dimension, which was then discussed separately for children, adults, and women. Of the 3879 studies identified from online searches of the literature and the five additional sources gathered through bibliography mining, 106 qualified for full review, with 34 studies included in the final synthesis. Multiple different instruments were found to be currently adopted or developed to assess agency. The present review offers an exhaustive overview of the different conceptualizations of agency and of the available instruments to assess it, providing critical information for researchers and policymakers to improve intervention and empowerment programs.

能动性建构的重要性和中心性在社会科学家中是众所周知的。然而，正如用于研究它的工具的多样性所证明的那样，对于如何理解和定义这个结构仍然几乎没有达成一致。事实上，目前没有共识或标准化的方法来评估代理。本文对评估和衡量个人能动性的研究进行了综合概述。更具体地说，目的是审查定量调查成人以及儿童和青年在不同社会背景下的能动性的研究。在此过程中，它提供了为未来研究、实践和政策提供信息的建议。我们通过叙述性文献综述确定了与跨国家和跨年龄机构评估相关的已发表同行评审研究。调查结果根据是在最全面的概念还是在精确的单一领域或维度中衡量代理进行分组，然后分别针对儿童、成人和女性进行讨论。在通过在线搜索文献和通过书目挖掘收集的另外 5 个来源确定的 3879 项研究中，有 106 项符合全面审查条件，其中 34 项研究包含在最终综合中。发现目前采用或开发了多种不同的工具来评估代理。本次审查详尽概述了机构的不同概念以及评估机构的可用工具，