Quality of life of psychiatrically disturbed children and their parents.: Results of the first multicenter study with the parents' version of the Inventory for the Assessment of the Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents (ILC)

Starting point of this study were results from previous studies, in-which psychiatrically disturbed children and adolescents had completed the youth version of the Inventory for the Assessment of the Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents (ILC). The present study investigated whether similar results can be obtained from the parents' perspective. 604 parents of outpatients and inpatients in child psychiatric services completed the parents' version of the ILC. Results: (1) It was also the parents' view that the quality of life of inpatients is lower on all scales in relation to outpatients. Furthermore there are significant effects of the child's age and sex on the parents' ratings on several scales. (2) A high percentage of the parents themselves feel considerably affected by the current problems of the child/adolescent and by the fact, that their child/adolescent is being treated;, the corresponding impairments of the children/adolescents are described by the parents as being less serious. When planning treatment studies, the question of the quality of life of the children and their parents should be taken into account systematically, in order to increase the effectiveness of the interventions.