How young can children reliably and validly self-report their health-related quality of life?: An analysis of 8,591 children across age subgroups with the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales

Table 1 PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales Total Scale Score: Child Self-Report Reliability and Validity

Age	Reliability		Validity
			Chronic Health Condition				Healthy Sample
	n	α	Mean	SD	% Floor	% Ceiling	Mean	SD	% Floor	% Ceiling	Chronic vs. Healthy Difference	Chronic vs. Healthy Effect Size
5 yrs	693	0.86	74.83	15.41	0.0	2.6	83.22	12.18	0.0	8.2	8.39*	0.69
6 yrs	913	0.86	76.24	14.82	0.0	4.3	82.12	12.73	0.0	7.1	5.88*	0.46
7 yrs	869	0.87	71.21	15.42	0.0	0.0	80.98	12.98	0.0	7.4	9.77*	0.75
8 yrs	864	0.90	75.43	14.73	0.0	1.6	83.54	12.95	0.0	8.6	8.11*	0.63
9 yrs	827	0.91	74.16	15.75	0.0	1.7	83.71	13.76	0.0	7.2	9.55*	0.69
10 yrs	825	0.90	76.13	15.84	0.0	3.1	84.16	12.72	0.0	9.5	8.03*	0.63
11 yrs	675	0.91	76.63	15.56	0.0	2.0	85.61	12.47	0.0	9.7	8.98*	0.72
12 yrs	669	0.91	76.57	15.48	0.0	1.3	84.01	12.97	0.0	9.9	7.44*	0.57
13 yrs	609	0.92	75.08	16.06	0.0	3.1	84.23	13.15	0.0	9.8	9.15*	0.70
14 yrs	560	0.92	74.10	16.34	0.0	2.9	85.71	11.97	0.0	11.6	11.61*	0.97
15 yrs	554	0.91	75.03	14.97	0.0	0.9	84.70	12.73	0.0	12.8	9.68*	0.76
16 yrs	327	0.91	74.67	16.52	0.0	0.6	85.76	11.41	0.0	10.1	11.09*	0.97

Note: Total N = 8,385 for reliability, Total N = 8,098 for validity.
Higher values equal better health-related quality of life.
% Floor/Ceiling = the percentage of scores at the extremes of the scaling range.
Effect sizes are designated as small (.20), medium (.50), and large (.80).
*p < .001 (independent samples t-test).

ISSN: 1477-7525