Psychometric Properties of the Beach Center Family Quality of Life in French-Speaking Families With a Preschool-Aged Child Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The French Beach Center FQOL is a reliable, valid ruler for tracking family quality of life in preschool autism families.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team translated the Beach Center Family Quality of Life scale into French. They gave the survey to parents of preschool children with autism. They checked if the French words still measured the same five life areas: family interaction, parenting, emotional well-being, physical well-being, and disability support.
What they found
The French scale held together. Internal consistency was excellent. The five-domain model fit the data acceptably. Higher family-life satisfaction went hand in hand with lower parenting stress.
How this fits with other research
Bhaumik et al. (2009) built the original English FQOL and found family relationships scored highest while support from others scored lowest. Rivard et al. (2017) now show the French version keeps that same pattern, so the tool travels well across languages.
Alnahdi (2024) later showed disability-specific support predicts better family QoL for Saudi mothers. Mélina’s work gives BCBAs a validated way to measure that QoL before and after adding supports.
Robinson et al. (2011) saw Slovenian families rate every life domain as highly important yet hard to reach. The French scale can now flag the same gap for preschool ASD families, guiding teams to target community opportunities, not just child skills.
Why it matters
You now have a brief, free, psychometrically sound tool in French. Use it during intake to see which life areas parents feel least satisfied with. Re-administer after six months of intervention to show families—and funders—whether services are improving real-life quality, not just child behavior.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale (Beach Center FQOL) is used to evaluate and develop family-centered intervention services. However, its use with families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in non-English speaking populations requires further investigation. The present study sought to assess the psychometric properties of a French translation of this scale on 452 parents of children aged 5 and under who were recently diagnosed with ASD. The resulting Satisfaction and Importance scales presented excellent internal consistency at the scale level and acceptable internal consistency at the subscale level. Theoretical model positing 5 dimensions of FQOL generally fit the data acceptably. Satisfaction ratings were found to be sensitive to changes and were negatively correlated with parenting stress.
American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2017 · doi:10.1352/1944-7558-122.5.439