A comparison of the quality of life of vulnerable young males with severe emotional and behaviour difficulties in a residential setting and young males in mainstream schooling

The findings from this study reveal that the notion of anticipated and deleterious differences in quality of life (QoL) between children with severe emotional and behavioural problems and those without such difficulties is not supported. Indeed, results reveal counter-intuitive findings with children with emotional and behavioural problems reporting better QoL than those without such presenting problems on a number of QoL subscales. The type of QoL measure and related subscales appears to be sensitive to differing aspects of self-report QoL, with in some instances, some QoL subscales being more discriminatory between groups compared with other QoL subscales. Consequently, the choice of QoL measure is critically important in accurately and reliably determining QoL in children with significant emotional and behavioural problems.