Brazilian Children's Understanding of the Quality of Life in Their Living Environment: A Qualitative Study

Development and Validation of the Quality of Life in the Neighborhood Questionnaire for Children 8 to 10 Years of Age (QoL-N-Kids 8-10)

Create and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Quality of Life in the Neighborhood Questionnaire for Children 8 to 10 years of Age (QoL-N-Kids 8-10). The present study was conducted in a medium-sized city in southeastern Brazil with children at four public schools and one private school. The study involved three phases: a) generation and validation of the content of the items through a qualitative study and expert panel (n = 8); b) face validity through a pilot study and interviews with children (n = 30); and c) application of the final version (n = 261) for the evaluation of internal consistency, temporal stability, construct validity and discriminant validity. All statistical tests applied during this step were interpreted considering a 5% significance level. Among the 56 items generated, 38 were maintained in the scale and submitted to face validation. In this phase, the children suggested the inclusion of an additional item, resulting in a measure with 39 items. The questionnaire was submitted to reliability tests (Cronbach's alpha) and exploratory factor analysis, leading to a questionnaire with 27 items distributed among five domains. The measures exhibited good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.805) and good test-retest reliability (weighted Kappa = 0.305 to 0.724; intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.917). Regarding discriminant validity, differences between groups (p < 0.001) were found for sex, age, income and place of residence. The QoL-N-Kids 8-10 instrument exhibited satisfactory psychometric properties and has potential for the assessment of neighborhood quality of life in children eight to ten years of age.