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The health and well-being of adolescents: a school-based population study of the self-report child health questionnaire

journal contribution
posted on 2001-08-01, 00:00 authored by Elizabeth Waters, L Salmon, M Wake, M Wright, Kylie HeskethKylie Hesketh
Purpose: To evaluate a new generic measure of adolescent health status, the self-report version of the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ), and provide population-based data. Furthermore, we aimed to examine the impact of common adolescent illness and health concerns on their health and well-being.

Methods:
A stratified, two-stage, random cluster sampling design was used to obtain a cross-sectional sample of subjects through schools. A written questionnaire included the 80-item 12-scale self-report CHQ and items measuring health concerns, illnesses/health conditions, and sociodemographics.

Results: A total of 2361 adolescents participated (response rate of 70%). Reliability was high: Tests of internal consistency and discriminant validity reported 90% of item-scale correlations >.4; all scales had Cronbach alpha coefficients >.7. Adolescents with illnesses/conditions or health concerns reported lower scores and larger differences for content-related scales, supporting content and construct validity. Statistically significant age and gender trends were observed for Mental Health, Self-Esteem, General Health, and Family Cohesion scales. Health status worsened as health concerns increased (X2 linear trend, p = .00) with deterioration in health of 5–20% on all scales for emotional health concerns (40% of sample).

Conclusions: The self-report CHQ is a reliable and seemingly valid measure of health and well-being for adolescent health research, although additional measures may be required where scales have high ceiling values. The significantly lower scores reported by adolescents with illness and/or health concerns lend support to the use of standardized health measures and longitudinal research to further examine the impact of adolescent comorbidities and their causal determinants.

History

Journal

Journal of adolescent health

Volume

29

Issue

2

Pagination

140 - 149

Publisher

Elsevier Inc.

Location

New York, N.Y.

ISSN

1054-139X

eISSN

1879-1972

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2001, Society for Adolescent Medicine