La qualité de vie infantile : état actuel des connaissances

The aim of this article is to analyse the concept of the children’s quality of life (QOL) on the basis of two main lines: the conceptual and methodological problems. The conceptual study highlights the absence of QOL consensual definition as well as the weak development of the theoretical frameworks subjacent with the various instruments. The existing tools consider mainly the QOL evaluation in terms of State without taking into account the goalsand priorities of the children. The methodological study examines psychometric qualities of the tools. These are more and more developed via self-reporting, what requires to take into account the state of development of the child. Lastly, the study of this QOL concept is illustrated through the examination of the three types of instruments: generic, specific, modular. The discussion of the conceptual and methodological data leads to a wish to develop a new QOL tool. The evaluation would be carried out there in terms of Gap, with study of the concept of Goal for the child.