Psychometric evaluation of an instrument for assessing policy outcomes for families with children who have severe developmental disabilities: The Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale

The quality of life of families with children who have disabilities is a practical gauge of policy outcomes. Despite this fact, current public disability policy has developed largely in the absence of evidence-based research on the quality of life of the families it affects. The study sought to determine whether or not the Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale (BCFQLS) could be used as a reliable and valid measure of the quality of life of families with children who have severe developmental disabilities. It also examined the extent to which it could be used in two different family groups: those whose child lives in the family home and those whose child lives outside the family home. Self-identified primary caregivers of 54 families (RR: 48.6%) provided qualitative and quantitative data through mailed and telephone surveys. The BCFQLS was found to be a fairly reliable and valid instrument for measuring the quality of life of individual families with children who have severe developmental disabilities and reside either in or outside the family home. The ability of the BCFQLS to differentiate between the quality of life of the two family groups, however, was found to be less than ideal. Suggestions for scale improvement and future research are offered.