Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a Catalan Self- and Interviewer-Administered Version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ Version 4.0

OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this study were to develop and to assess the psychometric properties of a Catalan self- and interviewer-administered version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Generic Core Scales (PedsQL) with a sample of schoolchildren, and to examine the equivalence between both versions. METHODS: 511 schoolchildren aged between 9 and 17 years old participated in the study. In addition to completing a Catalan self-administered version of the PedsQL, each child was interviewed individually. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis did not support the original Varni's proposal. Instead, a short 12-item version was derived. The higher-order scales for both versions were internally consistent. Moreover, relationships between ratings of children's quality of life were generally significant; both versions were also found to be related with another measure of quality of life supporting their validity. CONCLUSIONS: A new administration form for the PedsQL is presented in this study. The psychometric properties of both self- and interviewer-administered short 12-item versions are reassuring albeit with a few areas of improvement. Further studies are needed to investigate whether self- and interviewer-administered versions can really be considered to be comparable.