Article

PURPOSE: To develop an instrument to represent the availability of needed
environmental features (EFs) in the physical, social and attitudinal environment
of home, school and community for children with cerebral palsy. Following
a literature review and qualitative studies, the European Child Environment
Questionnaire (ECEQ) was developed to capture whether EFs needed by children with
cerebral palsy were available to them: 24, 24 and 12 items related to the
physical, social and attitudinal environments, respectively. The ECEQ was
administered to parents of 818 children with cerebral palsy aged 8-12 years, in
seven European countries. A domain structure was developed using factor analysis.
RESULTS: Parents responded to 98% of items. Seven items were omitted from
statistical models as the EFs they referred to were available to most children
who needed them; two items were omitted as they did not fit well into plausible
domains. The final domains, based on 51 items, were: Transport, Physical - home,
Physical - community, Physical - school, Social support - home, Social support -
community, Attitudes - family and friends, Attitudes - teachers and therapists,
Attitudes - classmates. CONCLUSION: ECEQ was acceptable to parents and can be
used to assess both the access children with cerebral palsy have to the EFs that
they need and how available individual EFs are.

Langue : ANGLAIS