Utility of the PedsQL™ family impact module: assessing the psychometric properties in a community sample

Abstract

Research on families coping with pediatric chronic illnesses has established that children and parents are affected by the illness. Therefore, optimal assessment of parent and family functioning is clinically important. The PedsQL™ family impact module (FIM) assesses parents' health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and family functioning. While the FIM has been shown to be reliable and valid in multiple chronic illness groups, there is little data on its use in non-clinical groups. The study's objective was to assess the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the FIM in a community sample. Nine hundred and twenty-nine community parents of children 2-17years old completed an anonymous online survey. The mean age of the participants was 37.6years (SD=8.6), and the majority were mothers (63.6%), white (82.9%), and married (74.8%). The mean age of the children being reported on was 8.8years (SD=3.9), and the majority were female (52.3%) and 41.2% were reported as having at least one chronic condition. All of the FIM's scales demonstrated excellent internal consistency reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis of the measure supported the current structure. The measure correlated in the expected direction with validated measures of anxiety, depression, child HRQOL, and number of chronic conditions endorsed. Independent t tests indicated that the measure has discriminant validity between parents who reported having a child with a chronic condition to those who did not. The results of this study suggest the FIM is a reliable and valid measure of parent HRQOL and family functioning within a community sample, and facilitate its use in comparative studies.