Cross-cultural validation and psychometric evaluation of the Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth in Korea

PURPOSE: To develop the Korean version of the Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth (KPEM-CY) and examine its psychometric properties. METHOD: The PEM-CY was cross-culturally translated into Korean using a specific guideline: pre-review of participation items, forward/backward translation, expert committee review, pre-test of the KPEM-CY and final review. To establish internal consistency, test-retest reliability and construct validity of the KPEM-CY, 80 parents of children with disabilities aged 5-13 years were recruited in South Korea. RESULTS: Across the home, school and community settings, 76% of participation items and 29% of environment items were revised to improve their fit with Korean culture. Internal consistency was moderate to excellent (0.67-0.92) for different summary scores. Test-retest reliability was excellent (>0.75) in the summary scores of participation frequency and extent of involvement across the three settings and moderate to excellent (0.53-0.95) in all summary scores at home. Child's age, type of school and annual income were the factors that significantly influenced specific dimensions of participation and environment across all settings. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicated that the KPEM-CY is equivalent to the original PEM-CY and has initial evidence of reliability and validity for use with Korean children with disabilities. Implications for rehabilitation Because 'participation' is a key outcome of the rehabilitation, measuring comprehensive participation of children with disabilities is necessary. The PEM-CY is a parent-report survey measure to assess comprehensive participation of children and youth and environment, which affect their participation, at home, school and in the community. A cross-cultural adaptation process is mandatory to adapt the measurement tool to a new culture or country. The Korean PEM-CY has both reliability and validity and can therefore generate useful clinical data for Korean children with disabilities.