Health-related quality of life and cognitive functioning from the perspective of parents of school-aged children with Asperger's Syndrome utilizing the PedsQL.
The PedsQL parent form is reliable for showing lowered quality of life in school-age Asperger’s, but add child self-report to avoid over-stating problems.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Parents of school-age children with Asperger’s filled out the PedsQL.
The form asks about the child’s health, school, play, and feelings.
Researchers checked if answers were consistent and if scores differed from typical kids.
What they found
Parent answers hung together well—high internal consistency.
Children with Asperger’s scored lower than healthy peers on every domain.
The gap showed the tool can spot real-life impact of the diagnosis.
How this fits with other research
Potvin et al. (2015) and Ding et al. (2017) asked kids to rate themselves too.
They found parents mark quality of life even lower than the children do.
So the 2009 parent-only view gives a floor, not the full picture.
Knüppel et al. (2018) pushed the age range into adulthood and saw the same rater gap, proving the pattern lasts.
Why it matters
Use the PedsQL parent form to quickly show insurance or schools that Asperger’s affects daily life.
Pair it with child self-report when possible—kids often see their lives less bleakly than parents.
This combo gives a fuller baseline and sharper target for goals.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
HRQOL as a multidimensional construct has not been previously investigated in children with Asperger's Syndrome. The objective of the present study was to examine the initial feasibility, reliability, and validity of the PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales and PedsQL Cognitive Functioning Scale parent proxy-report versions in school-aged children with Asperger's Syndrome. The PedsQL evidenced no missing responses (0.0%), achieved excellent reliability for the Generic Core Total Scale score (alpha = 0.82) and Cognitive Functioning Scale (alpha = 0.92), distinguished between children with Asperger's Syndrome and a matched sample of healthy children, and was related to similar constructs on the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale. The results demonstrate the initial measurement properties of the PedsQL in school-aged children with Asperger's Syndrome.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2009 · doi:10.1007/s10803-009-0777-5