GCQ Generic Children’s Quality of Life

Generic measure

Measure domains: General affect; peer relationships; attainments; relationships with parents; general satisfaction

Summary of development:  The Generic Children’s Quality of Life (GCQ) was developed to differentiate between healthy children and children with chronic illnesses (Collier 2000). The common themes from interviews with school children were used to formulate 25 questions that comprise the measure. According to Collier 1997, they had four points in mind when developing this questionnaire: 1) it can be used for both healthy children and those with chronic illnesses; 2) it would be based on children’s perceptions of good health, not parents’ views; 3) the measure would be child-friendly and easy for kids to understand; and 4) the concepts of health would be relative to the degree it matters to the child. Initially, the GCQ had 22 questions. After two pilot tests (Marlow, 1995; Hall, 1995) the measure was expanded to 25 questions. There are two forms of this measure; one for male children and one for females. The difference is that the children pictured on the GCQ are either visually male or female.