title: Health-related quality of life in children and adolescents: subjective well being.
abstract: The main objective of this study was to build a model, which includes personal and social factors, that helps to highlight factors that promote health-related quality of Life (HRQoL) in children and in adolescents. A sample of 3195 children and adolescents was acquired from 5th and 7th graders from all five Portuguese regions. In this study three independent latent variables were specified--Physical, Psychological and Social and two dependent latent variables were measured: Health behavior and Quality of Life. The integrative model was composed by different components: (1) health-related quality of life, integrated by 8 dimensions from KIDSCREEN-52; (2) health behavior, (3) variables related to physical health; (4) variables related to social health; (5) variables related to psychological health. As results were found strong correlation between psychological dimensions and self-esteem and other factors and a structural equation model was developed. The model presented a RMSEA index of .08. Similarly, adjustment levels for the CFI, NFI and IFI vary above or around .90, which suggests a good adjustment for the hypothesized model. The model presented significant qui-square. This study showed that in all the samples studied, the psychological variables were those that contributed at a superior level to HRQoL.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade Ténica de Lisboa, Estrada da Costa 1495-688 Cruz Quebrada, Portugal. taniagaspar@fmh.utl.pt
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gaspar
authors.forename: José Pais
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: Margarida Gaspar
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: de Matos
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Leal
authors.forename: Aristides
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011174:Portugal; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012648:Self Care / Q000523:psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires