The Association Between Home Environment And Quality Of Life Of Children: A Study Based On Structure Equation Modeling

Objectives: We aim to examine the quality of life(QOL) of children from elementary schools in Hubei Province, and explore the influence of home environment factors on the QOL, which could provide a theoretical basis for promoting the QOL of children.Methods: Using cluster sampling, we selected 6 primary schools in a middle-sized city in Hubei, and collected data from the students from grade 3 to 6.Quality of Life scale for children and adolescents was used to assess the QOL of elementary students. The questionnaire of children’s Chinese reading ability and its influencing factors was used to investigate their reading abilities and home environment factors including family socioeconomic status(SES), home literature environment(HLE) and dietary behavior. We send out 7468 questionnaires, and totally 6463 questionnaires were returned. There were 6202 valid questionnaires for further analysis. We applied the univariate analysis to screen for home environment factors which affected the QOL. The multiple linear regression was used for the statistical significant variables in univariate analysis(t-test, ANOVA and simple linear regression), followed by using structure equation modeling to explore the association between home environment factors and the QOL of elementary students. The statistical analyses were done with SPSS software(version 13.0) and AMOS software(version 20.0).Results:1 Altogether, 83% of the children had a medium level of QOL or above. And the scores of social psychological function domain and living environment domain of the children in this city were significantly lower than the national norm. The total score of QOL was differently distributed in gender and age(tgender=-6.791, Pgender<0.001;tgrade=9.385, Pgrade<0.001). The score was higher in girls(146.01±16.86) than boys(143.06±16.95) and higher in low-grade students(146.41±16.89) than high-grade students(142.39±16.82).2 The results of univariate analysis of children’s QOL among home environmentfactors showed that higher family SES, better home HLE and better dietary behavior groups had higher score of QOL(P<0.05).3 Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed that low-grade, female, family income 2000 to 3000 yuan, higher frequency of breakfast consumption, taking fruits or vegetables per day, balanced diet, and good literacy-related activity had positive influence on summary score of QOL(P<0.05), while the long time spending on electronic devices had adverse effect on QOL(P<0.05).4 The result of structure equation modeling showed the model fitted well(AGFI=0.970, GFI=0.922, RMSEA=0.47). “Home literature environment”, “reading ability”, “children having difficulty in finishing homework” and “dietary behavior”were inner factors. Furthermore, “education level of parents” and “family economic status” were outer factors. The outer factors affected the QOL of children indirectly through the inner factors.Conclusions:1 The overall QOL of children was in good condition in this city of Hubei Province, and the social psychological function domain and living environment domain of the children still need to be improved.2 Family SES, HLE and dietary behavior could affect the QOL of children. The HLE and dietary behavior posed an effect on QOL more directly, suggesting that creating a good HLE and developing good dietary habits had important practical significance in improving the QOL of children.