SILENT VOICES: CHILDRENS QUALITY OF LIFE CONCEPTS

The paper deals with the concept of quality of life (QOL) among children and adolescents and the methodological issues connected with research on QOL. The authors' survey was completed by 581 respondents from the general population, aged between 8 - 15 years old. Their task was to describe the term 'quality of life' and to describe poor, average and outstanding ways of living using the examples of their friends and acquaintances. This survey is a response to the lack of research directed at how children themselves see the quality of their lives and it is a part of a research project mapping QOL among children and adolescents. Results show that the major QOL categories are quite constant across age and gender. Most of the respondents want the same: a good family, parental care, good or average school grades, good friends and a sufficient amount of money (in the family). Major gender and age differences appear among less frequent categories e.g., good clothes, freedom, sport, alcohol consumption or smoking.