A Systematic Review of the Assessment of Quality of Life in Adolescents

Abstract

Quality of life in adolescence is a highly studied topic, both in the psychosocial and educational domains, and especially relevant for adolescents with disabilities. Its measurement provides useful information for the promotion of adolescents’ well-being. This study aims to provide an updated analysis of the main instruments designed to measure quality of life in adolescence, with a special focus on adolescents with disabilities. Four electronic databases were searched for studies regarding the development and validation of measures of quality of life in adolescence. This review was conducted using the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews. The search identifed 38 studies that met eligibility criteria for the review and which presented the design, initial validation, replication, or adaptation of ten instruments that assess quality of life from a global, general, or multidimensional perspective. This last approach is currently viewed as the most appropriate for the study of quality of life. The main potentialities and limitations of the use of each instrument are presented and the relevance of quality of life assessment for intervention is further discussed.