The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL)
What It Measures
The PedsQL asks children and their parents about how a health condition is affecting everyday life including areas of physical activity, emotions, friendships, and school. Because both the child (when old enough) and a parent can complete it, it captures both the child's own experience and a caregiver's perspective side by side.
The Generic Core Scales are 23 items covering physical, emotional, social, and school functioning, producing a Physical Health score, a Psychosocial Health score, and a Total score; disease-specific modules (for conditions like cancer or neuromuscular disorders) can be added on top of the generic core. Occupational and mental health therapists use it with children and adolescents ages 2–18 in outpatient, school, and early intervention settings, including after traumatic brain injury, to track how a condition and its treatment affect daily quality of life over time.
Additional Notes
PedsQL is free for individual clinical use and not-funded academic research. A license fee applies for funded academic research, large non-commercial organizations, and commercial/industry use.
