Measurement equivalence across child self-reports and parent-proxy reports in the Chinese version of the pediatric quality of life inventory version 4.0

Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2013 Oct;44(5):583-90. doi: 10.1007/s10578-012-0352-8.

Abstract

An important assumption for comparing children's quality of life (QoL) between children's and parents' perceptions is that measurement equivalence/invariance (ME/I) exists. The ME/I across the child- and parent-reported Chinese PedsQL was examined, and the latent means between child self-reports and parent-proxy reports were compared. Third-grade to sixth-grade children (n = 519) and their parents (n = 270) respectively completed the child- and parent-reported PedsQL. Seventy-eight parents completed parent-proxy reports twice. Full ME/I across child and parent reports was found in first- and second-order factor loadings. Partial ME/I was supported in item intercepts and item residual variances. The latent means of child self-reports and of parent-proxy reports were not significantly different, which suggested interchangeability between child- and parent-reported PedsQL. The ME/I results support the use of PedsQL scores to compare children's and parents' perceptions of children's QoL.

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Parents*
  • Proxy*
  • Psychometrics / instrumentation
  • Quality of Life / psychology*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Self Report*