Abstract
The terms ‘quality of life’ (QoL) and ‘health related quality of life’ (HRQoL) are fraught with preconceptions, misconceptions and, frequently, confusion: How are these terms best defined? What are the best ways to measure them? These challenges, which are present even in the relatively well-studied fields of adult physical health, are magnified considerably when considered in the context of child and adolescent mental health. They are, however, concepts that are being increasingly discussed by child and adolescent mental health clinicians, researchers and service planners. The purpose of this review is to analyse and discuss the concept of QoL and HRQoL (for simplicity we will use the umbrella term QoL in this paper except when there is a need to draw more fine-grain distinctions) as they relate to child and adolescent mental health, and review the various reasons for measuring QoL in this population. The paper is divided into three main sections. First, we introduce the concept of QoL and draw out the issues raised with regard to the field of childhood mental health research and practice. Second, we discuss the range of challenges raised as we move from concept to measurement. Third, we review and contrast some of the many different measurement tools currently available.
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