Abstract
BackgroundA good quality of life (QOL) is important for the physical and mental well-being of all children. However, young people who live in an institutional setting may face different challenges than those who are raised in a traditional family. While a few quantitative studies of institutionalized children’s QOL have been conducted, no research has investigated the QOL of young people living in Children’s Homes (CHs) in Japan. This research compared the QOL of children and adolescents in Japan who live in CHs with that of children and adolescents living in traditional families.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2016 with 204 students (grades three through nine), 47 of whom lived in a CH, and 157 of whom lived in a traditional family. Ages ranged from 8 to 15 years (CH: 55.8% Female, 44.2% Male; Traditional: 54.1% Female, 45.9% Male). Participants answered the kid-Kinder Lebensqualität Fragebogen (Translated from German: Children’s quality of life questionnaire; KINDL®) Japanese Version, which covers six subscales of QOL; they filled in the questionnaires at home. Analysis of variance was used to compare QOL between the two samples.ResultsThe total QOL score for all students (combined elementary school students and junior high school students) from CHs was statistically significantly lower than that for students from traditional families. Scores for the subscales, emotional well-being and family, were also significantly lower for CH young people than for those in traditional families. While elementary pupils in CHs reported lower QOL than those in traditional families, no significant differences in QOL were seen between junior high school students from CHs and their peers from traditional families.ConclusionsThe findings presented support previous research showing that the QOL of elementary school students living in CHs is significantly lower than that of their peers in traditional families. However, this difference was not observed among junior high school students. This contrast suggests that QOL changes with age. Future research is needed to evaluate the determinants of QOL among all generations and family contexts.
Highlights
A good quality of life (QOL) is important for the physical and mental well-being of all children
This study presents a comparison of the QOL of young people living in Children’s Homes (CHs) with those in a traditional family home
While this study showed that the total QOL, emotional well-being, self-esteem, family, and school of elementary school children in the CH group were statistically significantly lower than those in the traditional family group, junior high school students in the CH group in the present study did not show any significant differences in their total scores for QOL and its subscales, compared with junior high school students in the traditional family group
Summary
A good quality of life (QOL) is important for the physical and mental well-being of all children. Young people who live in an institutional setting may face different challenges than those who are raised in a traditional family. This research compared the QOL of children and adolescents in Japan who live in CHs with that of children and adolescents living in traditional families. 26,500 children between the ages of 3 and 18 currently live in 615 Children’s Homes (CHs) in Japan [2]. CHs were established based on Japan’s child social welfare laws in 1947. They house orp haned, neglected, or abused children; 60% are abused [3]. The number of foster children in Japan is only 4731, which is approximately 12% of children in need of social care [2]. Children raised in CHs are protected by the Child Guidance Center
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