Abstract
Ever since the WHO (World Health Organization) defined health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, Quality of life (QOL) has been considered important for children's wellbeing. This study examined the relationship between maternal QOL and the QOL of their schoolchildren, assessed by children's self-reports and mothers' reports. Participants were 461 mother-child pairs with children in second to sixth grades. Children's QOL was assessed by children's and their mothers' responses to the Kid-KINDL Questionnaire (children's and parent's versions). Maternal QOL was assessed by the WHO-QOL26, and maternal caregiving was assessed by Emotional Caregiving of Parent Scale. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that differences between mothers and children about the cognition of children's QOL affected children's QOL, such that larger differences resulted in lower children's QOL. Moreover, in boys, mothers' QOL and their restrictive feeling about childcare affected children's QOL, whereas this was not the case in girls. A regression analysis indicated that mothers' lower QOL significantly affected the interaction between QOL of boys and mothers, whereas mothers' higher QOL did not affect the interaction between QOL of boys and mothers. These findings showed that mothers' QOL affected the QOL of boys more than that of girls. Therefore, it is suggested that in clinical settings, attention should be focused on the QOL of mothers when dealing with boys with especially low QOL scores.
