Helserelatert livskvalitet hos ungdom

Abstract

The study presented in this paper is part of a larger Norwegian investigation among adolescents, where the overall aim is to develop methods to promote their quality of life, to discover risk factors or threats to adolescents' well-being, and finally to prevent the negative effects of such factors. The purpose of this article is to describe the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) of a group of healthy, Norwegian adolescents, and to discuss possible implications for further research and clinical work. HR-QOL was measured with Child Health Questionnaire Child Form (CHQ-CF87), and in addition demographic data were collected. The results indicate that HR-QOL among this group of Norwegian adolescents is relatively high on the average. However, the findings also reveal areas of quality of life where the average measures are somewhat lower, and where the adolescents seem to be more vulnerable, ie mental health, self-esteem and bodily pain. There are also significant gender differences, with girls scoring lower than boys, in the following scales; bodily pain, mental health, self-esteem and behaviour.