Joanne Lawford

Preliminary findings from the development of a new quality of life (QoL) measure for children aged 3-8 years are presented in two studies. Thirty-six children (5-6 years) completed a 10-item measure in Study 1, which included ratings of their abilities and 'happiness'. The children also completed an established QoL measure and 24 parents completed a proxy QoL measure. Preliminary support for the face and construct validity of the new measure is reported. There were correlations between the children's scores on the two measures (p < 0.05). However, child and parent scores were not correlated (p = 0.65). Twenty-four children (3-4 years) completed a modified version of the new QoL measure in Study 2, which consisted of 23 items. The internal reliability of the measure and the speed of children's responses allowed comparison of the efficacy of two response formats. Significant differences in speed were found in children's responses using different response formats, and differences in the internal consistency of the measure. Eighteen parents completed a proxy QoL measure, as in Study 1. Child and parent scores on the two measures were not correlated (p = 0.23). These studies highlight the difficulties in obtaining self-report QoL data from children below 5 years.

This paper explores links between the concepts of Quality of Life (QoL) and resilience. First, the definitions of QoL and resilience are explored separately, emphasizing that both concepts have been criticized for a lack of theory with resulting problems in description, prediction and measurement. The similarities and differences are then considered between these two related psychological concepts-resilience and QoL. The need is identified for establishing a theoretical model of QoL, and how elements from resilience research can be beneficially integrated within such a model is discussed. Further empirical work is needed to explore explicitly the relationship between these two related psychological concepts, and establish how well resilience can help explain individual variation in QoL reports in young children.