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 3 PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales Psychosocial Health Summary 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	696	0.82	73.16	16.30	0.0	3.9	81.56	13.76	0.0	11.6	8.40*	0.61
6 yrs	914	0.82	74.06	16.13	0.0	5.6	79.91	14.40	0.0	9.8	5.85*	0.41
7 yrs	870	0.83	69.14	16.68	0.0	0.0	78.55	14.73	0.0	8.7	9.41*	0.64
8 yrs	867	0.86	74.27	15.53	0.0	2.4	81.53	14.25	0.0	10.3	7.26*	0.51
9 yrs	829	0.87	73.01	16.90	0.0	2.6	81.20	14.99	0.0	8.8	8.19*	0.55
10 yrs	829	0.87	75.44	16.82	0.0	3.5	82.09	14.06	0.0	10.5	6.65*	0.47
11 yrs	675	0.89	75.77	16.41	0.0	2.8	84.32	13.45	0.0	11.1	8.55*	0.64
12 yrs	672	0.88	75.86	16.14	0.0	1.8	82.20	14.45	0.0	13.0	6.33*	0.44
13 yrs	610	0.89	74.46	16.69	0.0	5.4	82.34	14.69	0.0	12.0	7.87*	0.54
14 yrs	562	0.88	73.99	16.20	0.0	5.4	83.98	13.28	0.0	12.6	9.99*	0.75
15 yrs	556	0.88	73.89	15.31	0.0	1.3	82.72	14.21	0.0	14.9	8.83*	0.62
16 yrs	328	0.88	74.21	16.36	0.0	1.7	83.98	13.03	0.0	10.8	9.78*	0.75

Note: Total N = 8,408 for reliability, Total N = 8,324 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