title: Assessing children's interpretations of the Aboriginal Children's Health and Well-Being Measure (ACHWM).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are emerging opportunities to improve the health of Aboriginal children and youth. The Aboriginal Children's Health and Well-being Measure (ACHWM) was developed to enable Aboriginal communities to obtain group-level data from the perspectives of their children 8 to 18 years of age. The survey was developed in collaboration with children, based on the Medicine Wheel framework. The purpose of this study was to ensure that children and youth interpreted the ACHWM questions consistently and accurately and to establish the face validity of the survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children and parents/caregivers from the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve (Canada) participated in a detailed interview process as they completed the ACHWM, in 2012. Each participant worked through their thought process verbally, to enable the interviewer to identify questions that were misinterpreted or inconsistently interpreted. Questions were revised based on feedback from the participants, and reviewed with new participants until a stable version was established. The resulting version was reviewed by health care providers and community members to further ensure cultural relevance and face validity within the community.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 18 interviews, with 9 children and 9 caregivers, were required to achieve a stable version of the survey. The children ranged in age from 8 to 18 years. Revisions were required for 19 questions. Most of these revisions were minor linguistic changes. In addition, 6 questions were deleted due to consistent problems and 4 questions were created to address gaps identified during the process. Community members confirmed the appropriateness of the measure for their community and communicated their pride in their youth's role in the development of this survey.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The result was a 58-question version of the ACHWM that was consistently interpreted and culturally appropriate, and had face validity confirmed by experts from the community, children and their parents/caregivers. The ACHWM is ready to be assessed for relevance to other Aboriginal communities.
authors.affiliation: Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, ON, P3E 2C6, Canada. nyoung@laurentian.ca.
authors.forename: Nancy L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: Nahndahweh Tchigehgamig Health Centre, Wikwemikong, ON, P0P 2J0, Canada. mjwabano@wikyhealth.ca.
authors.forename: Mary Jo
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Wabano
authors.affiliation: Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, ON, P3E 2C6, Canada. sritchie@laurentian.ca.
authors.forename: Stephen D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Ritchie
authors.affiliation: Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, ON, P3E 2C6, Canada. tburke@laurentian.ca.
authors.forename: Tricia A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.affiliation: Nahndahweh Tchigehgamig Health Centre, Wikwemikong, ON, P0P 2J0, Canada. bpangowish@wikyhealth.ca.
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pangowish
authors.affiliation: Nahndahweh Tchigehgamig Health Centre, Wikwemikong, ON, P0P 2J0, Canada.
authors.forename: Rita G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Corbiere
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D000067576:Child Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life