Activities of daily living (ADL) are key to daily living and adjustment. A number of ADL scales have been developed and validated to examine functional performance in the pediatric population; however, most of these scales are limited to specific groups. The purpose of this research was to test the plausibility of developing and validating a hierarchical versus additive ADL summary scale for children and youth using the interRAI Child Youth Mental Health (ChYMH) assessment system. Data from 8980 typically developing children (mean age 12.02 years) and 655 children with developmental disabilities (mean age 11.9 years) was used to develop ADL summary scales. Patterns among the data were analyzed and, unlike with adult populations, a hierarchical scale did not capture ADL performance and mastery. Two new ADL additive summary scales for children and youth were developed to measure ADL skills within this group.
Keywords: Activities of daily living; scale development; self-care.