Perceived quality of life: a neglected component of adolescent health assessment and intervention

doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2003.07.007

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 34, Issue 4, April 2004, Pages 270-278

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2003.07.007 Get rights and content

Abstract

The contribution of the construct of perceived quality of life (PQOL) to adolescent health assessment and promotion is discussed. Theory, measurement, and correlates of PQOL in adolescence are reviewed, with a focus on the incremental validity of PQOL data in relationship to more traditional pathology-based health indices. Similar to Diener's proposal [1], which pertained exclusively to adults, we call for the inclusion of PQOL data in national databases that monitor adolescent health outcomes.

Section snippets

Definitions of perceived QOL

The study of QOL includes, but is not limited to, perceived QOL. Global PQOL has been defined as one's cognitive appraisal of his or her overall satisfaction with life [16]. Although researchers are interested in peoples' subjective appraisals of their overall QOL, they are also often interested in satisfaction across different domains. For example, an individual may experience high PQOL with his or her peer relationships while experiencing low PQOL in the family context. Specific to

Conclusion

It is reasonable to conclude that the inclusion of PQOL measures in national and international adolescent health databases would be consistent with calls to promote the health and well-being of all adolescents 73, 74. The knowledge base of adolescent PQOL is somewhat preliminary, but very promising. A stronger scientific base is necessary to formulate unequivocal conclusions about the relationship between PQOL and adolescents' risk behavior and physical and mental illness. Nevertheless, PQOL

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Addressing adolescent sexual risk behaviors in the STI/HIV prevention literature is well documented; however, intervention impacts on life satisfaction are relatively unexplored. This study is a secondary analysis of data (N = 1,658) from a randomized, multisite, multilevel safer sex media campaign (Project iMPPACS) analyzing life satisfaction across baseline and follow-up data collected from 2006 to 2008 among participants (mean age 15.08 years) who reported never having had vaginal sex at baseline (n = 787).
Participants were separated into groups based on whether they reported having vaginal sex (yes/no) at baseline. Then taking into account the nested study design and controlling for confounders, a mixed model repeated measures analysis of variance assessed whether differences in mean total life satisfaction (LS) were associated across time in the media and nonmedia study conditions separately by gender.
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For Wave 2 of the Children's Worlds survey, a modified 5-item SLSS was employed, including the following items: “My life is going well”, “My life is just right”, “I have a good life”, and “I have what I want in life”; with the fifth item adapted from Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin's (1985) Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), namely “The things in my life are excellent” (Rees & Main, 2015). The scale has been shown to display acceptable internal consistency, with alpha coefficients of 0.82 (Huebner, 1991; Huebner et al., 2004), 0.86 (Dew & Huebner, 1994), and 0.89 (Marques et al., 2007). The SLSS has also evinced convergent validity by correlating well with other life satisfaction measures (Dew & Huebner, 1994; Huebner, 1991) and overall life satisfaction (Casas, Bello, et al., 2013).
Recent trends in child well-being research have shown a substantial advancement in studies investigating children's subjective well-being (SWB). This advancement has raised questions concerning the measurement of SWB and the extent to which various measures can be compared across countries and diverse cultures. With a dearth of empirical data on cross-cultural comparisons, the validation of existing measures and cross-cultural comparisons and adaptations, have been identified as a critical course of action. The current study contributes to this process – it aims to report on children's SWB in three African countries (Algeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa), using two multiple item measures of SWB (the context-free Students' Life Satisfaction Scale and the domain-specific Personal Well-Being Index-School Children). Within this process the study further aims to test the structural validity of these measures and to ascertain its cross-country comparability. Data from the second wave of the Children's Worlds survey were used; and includes a randomly selected sample of 3394 children between the ages of 11–12 from Algeria (Provinces of El Bayedh, Oran, and Tlemcen), Ethiopia and South Africa (Western Cape Province). Located within the goodness of fit theoretical framework, confirmatory factor analysis and Structural Equation Modelling were used to test the overall fit structure, while multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to test measurement invariance. The results show appropriate fit structure for the individual models, with metric and scalar factor invariance tenable across the three countries for the Students' Life Satisfaction Scale and partial scalar invariance obtained for four items on the Personal Well-Being Index-School Children. The Algerian sample scored significantly higher than Ethiopia and South Africa on both SWB measures. Appropriate fit structure was obtained for the combined model and for the structural model, indicating adequate convergent validity with the single item Overall Life Satisfaction. Metric and partial scalar invariance was tenable for the structural model, suggesting cross-country comparability for correlations, regressions and means. The overall findings suggest that the two measures are appropriate for use with children from the three countries and that meaningful comparisons can be made between the three countries.
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It is well known that poor quality of life is associated with smoking status and nicotine dependence (Duffy et al., 2002; Laaksonen et al., 2006; Mitra et al., 2004), and both physical as well as global quality of life have been shown to improve after quit attempts (Piper et al., 2012). Even though Quality of life-which is usually measured in terms of external conditions such as income levels, housing quality, friendship networks, and access to health services – is an important factor that influences smoking behavior (Mulder et al., 2001), SWL may be most crucial due to the subjective component of the measure (i.e., individuals’ internal judgments of the quality of their overall lives) (Huebner et al., 2004). SWL has been shown to be lower among smokers compared to non-smokers (Barros et al., 2015; Zullig et al., 2001).
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Review articlePerceived quality of life: a neglected component of adolescent health assessment and intervention

Abstract

Abstract

Section snippets

Definitions of perceived QOL

Conclusion

J Adolesc Health

J Sch Psychol

J Adolesc

J Adolesc Health

Pers Individ Dif

J Sch Psychol

Am J Prev Med

Subjective well-beingThe science of happiness and a proposal for a national index

Am Psychol

Quality of life and health promotion

Health Promotion PlanningAn Educational and Environmental Approach

FlowThe Psychology of Optimal Experience

Further validation of the Students' Life Satisfaction Scale

J Psychoeduc Assess

Bibliography of Happiness2472 Contemporary Studies of Subjective Appreciation in Life

Subjective well-beingThree decades of progress

Psychol Bull

Cross-sectional and longitudinal psychosocial correlates of adolescent life satisfaction reports

Can J Sch Psychol

Review of life satisfaction measures for adolescents

Behav Change

Positive psychologyAn introduction

Am Psychol

Improving mental and physical health care through quality of life therapy and assessment

Assessing subjective well-beingProgress and opportunities

Soc Indic Res

Further validation of the multidimensional students' life satisfaction scale

J Psychoeduc Assess

The Comprehensive Quality of Life ScaleA psychometric evaluation with an adolescent sample

Behav Change

Defining quality of life: Eleven debates concerning its measurement

(CDC). Measuring Healthy DaysPopulation Assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life

Lessons from the literature: Toward a holistic model of quality of life

Exploring current conceptions of quality of life: A model for people with and without disabilities

Enhancing the quality of life in the population at large

Soc Indic Res

Personality, life events, and subjective well-beingToward a dynamic equilibrium model

J Pers Soc Psychol

Reports of subject well-being: Judgmental processes and their methodological implications

Friends' influence on students' adjustment to school

Educ Psychol

Friendships and adaptation in the life course

Psychol Bull

Initial development of the Student's Life Satisfaction Scale

Sch Psychol Int

Preliminary validation of the Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS)

Soc Indic Res

Preliminary development and validation of a multidimensional life scale for children

Psychol Assess

Review article
Perceived quality of life: a neglected component of adolescent health assessment and intervention