title: The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) 4.0 as an assessment measure for depressive symptoms: a correlational study with young adolescents.
abstract: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is today considered an important assessment measurement, but still only a few measures assess HRQOL outcomes for children and adolescents. One of them is the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL). This correlation study explored the associations between depressive symptoms in young adolescents and the PedsQL scores when controlling for known risk factors. An adolescent sample (n=425) completed a battery of measures including the PedsQL Norwegian version, the Short Mood and Feeling Questionnaire (SMFQ), the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for children (SPAI-C), and the occurrence of Stressful Life Events (SLE). The results showed a mild to moderate correlation between the measures PedsQL, SMFQ, SPAI-C and SLE. The presence of depressive symptoms significantly predicted the PedsQL scores for the adolescence, and explained 17% of the variance in outcome for the PedsQL Total Scale. The findings suggest that the PedsQL is an adequate assessment instrument regarding depressive symptoms in young adolescents, and can be useful in both clinical practice and further research as an assessment measure regarding children's mental health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. trude.reinfjell@ntnu.no
authors.forename: Trude
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reinfjell
authors.forename: Odin
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hjemdal
authors.forename: Tore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aune
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vikan
authors.forename: Trond H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Diseth
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000379:methods*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires