Difficulties experienced by school-age adolescents and determination of their quality of life

Aim: This study was conducted to determine the quality of life and difficulties of adolescents in school age. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted with 344 students studying at Erzurum Central Secondary School between January 2016 and January 2017 in Atatürk University Institute of Health Sciences. Questionnaire developed by the researcher, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) were used for data collection. The data were analyzed using SPSS 22.00 package program. Research was completed in line with the ethical principles. Results: According to the evaluations, it was observed that 50.6% of the students was 13 years old, 52% was male and 53.5% was in 7th grade. The total score average for PedsQL was 81.58±13.65 and the mean total score for SDQ was 25.02±4.813. There was no significant relationship between the "attention deficit and hyperactivity" sub-scale of the SDQ and the "physical health, social functioning, school functioning" sub-scales of the PedsQL. In addition, a positive and significant correlation was found between "behavioral problems" sub-scale score of the SDQ and all sub-scales of PedsQL except the "physical health" sub-scale as well as the positive and significant correlation between the mean total scores of PedsQL and SDQ. Conclusion: It was observed that the quality of life of the students is affected negatively as the difficulties experienced during adolescence increase. Based on this result, some recommendations were made to reveal the problems experienced by school-age adolescents and to increase their quality of life. Keywords: Adolescents, school health, strengths and difficulties, quality of life