ABSTRACT

Chronic health conditions that affect children represent an important and prevalent public

health problem (Newacheck & Taylor, 1992) that can disrupt children’s functioning and

activities (Newacheck & Halfon, 1998) and increase family burden (Drotar, 1997). In

recent years, advances in medical treatment have prolonged the lives of children with

conditions such as cancer and very low birth weight and have necessitated increased

attention to the assessment of their functioning and adaptation. Studies of the long-term

outcomes of children with chronic health conditions place a primary emphasis on

assessment of functioning (Thompson & Gustafson, 1996). As interventions are

developed to enhance the functioning and adaptation of children with chronic illness,

reliable and valid measures of functional outcome become increasingly important

(Bauman, Drotar, Perrin, Pless, & Leventhal, 1997). For all the aforementioned reasons,

the measurement of children’s health status and quality of life has assumed increased

importance (Spieth & Harris, 1996).