Wisconsin Quality of Life Index
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Wisconsin Quality of Life Index
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Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute
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The Family Quality of Life Index (F-QLI) CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The Family Quality of Life Index (F-QLI) is a comprehensive multi-dimensional measurement tool that reflects the priorities and goals of families seeking counseling services. It is designed to be administered by social service agencies providing family preservation services. On the basis of previous research, our clinical experience, and recommendations from an advisory board convened to develop the instrument, we defined quality of family life as made up of the following seven domains: 1) life satisfaction, 2) activities of daily living, 3) physical health, 4) psychological well-being, 5) social relations, 6) alcohol and other drug abuse, and 7) goal attainment. Each domain can be individually weighted depending on its relative importance to the respondent. The goal attainment domain is helpful for both family members and the service provider in that it allows respondents to explicitly specify unique family goals in utilizing social services. Multiple respondents within the family can fill out the form so the service provider can assess differences between family members on perceptions about family QoL and counseling goals. The Family Quality of Life Index was designed to be self-administered though it can be administered verbally by the service provider when necessary. The independent domains of the F-QLI are briefly described below. Each domain can be scored separately and the separate domain scores can be added to produce the total quality of family life score. There is a parallel form for providers which can be used by professionals to assess clients’ family QoL. DOMAINS Life-Satisfaction These questions measure respondent’s overall satisfaction about the quality of their family life. This domain includes a broad array of issues such as satisfaction with how the family spends time together, the housing they live in, personal safety, family routine and social services. Each indicator is rated for satisfaction with the item and for its importance. The score for each item is determined by multiplying each client’s satisfaction response with the importance response. Activities of Daily Living This domain focuses on the family’s day-to-day activities together. Questions in this domain ask about such things as how many meals a week the family eats together and satisfaction with family activities. Physical Health Questions in this domain inquire about the respondents physical health and functional capacity for accomplishing basic tasks. Psychological Well-Being Among other things, this domain uses the well-validated Bradburn Affect Balance Scale (ABS) to measure the respondent’s sense of emotional well-being. The ABS is a widely used and well validated scale that has been used by other researchers attempting to operationalize and study psychological well-being. The ABS includes separate assessments of negative and positive affect. This domain also asks the respondent about coping ability and capacity to handle stress. Social Relations These questions measure respondent’s satisfaction with how their family gets along with one another. Respondents are asked to rate the amount of support they experience from their relationships and their perceived satisfaction with their family’s social relations. Alcohol & Other Drugs These questions ask about alcohol and other drug use and the extent to which family members’ perceive their drug or alcohol use to be a problem in their lives. These questions allow clinicians and program evaluators to examine differences in quality of family life and program effectiveness for families with and without AODA problems. Goal Attainment This section focuses on family members’ goals. Respondents are asked to specify the three most important goals they wish to accomplish as a result of the services to their family. Goals are ranked both in terms of their relative importance to the respondent as well as the extent to which the responder feels each goal has been achieved. Other Analyses of Interest in The Family Quality of Life Index The Family Quality of Life Index contains a number of items that do not load in any specific domains in the total family QoL score but which are valuable in both an applied and theoretical context. Examples of these include: Hope This question (Q5) provides the opportunity to examine the role of hope for improvement in family QoL and how family preservation outcomes vary depending on differing levels of hope. Locus of Control This question (Q6) provides the opportunity to examine how differences in respondents’ sense of control over important areas of family life impacts treatment outcomes and overall quality of family life. |
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