Development and validation of Iranian children’s participation assessment scale

BACKGROUND Participation is mostly cultural and familial based, and there is not any assessment scales for evaluating kids' participation in Iranian context, therefore the purpose of this study was developing children's participation assessment scale for Iranian children. METHODS Development of this scale occurred in two phases; phase I: planning: following reviewing the literature and adopting and compiling some items of available evaluation tools in the area (such as CAPE, CPQ, CLASS, Life-H) and receiving advice from two expert panels, the preliminary94- item questionnaire was prepared. Phase II: construct: the survey study was carried out on40 children and 21 of their parents to assess the popularity of the activity in Iran; thus, the items of the questionnaire reduced to 92 and after face and content validity, the final version prepared with 71 items. RESULTS The final 71-item questionnaire was developed in two parent-report and child-report versions. The 71 items based on the literature and expert panels' advice were categorized in 8 areas of occupation according to Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (ADL, IADL, Play, leisure, social participation, education, work, and sleep/rest). CONCLUSION Iranian children's participation assessment is a useful and culturally relevant tool to measure participation of Iranian children. It can be used in rigorous clinical and population-based research.