[The Giessen Symptom Questionnaire for children and adolescents]

The Giessen Subjective Complaints List for children (GSCL-C) a questionnaire on physical complaints in self-image form, was developed out of the adult GSCL. The questionnaire contains items from the areas; general wellbeing, vegetative complaints, pains, emotionality and children's complaints. The subject is asked to estimate the degree of distress caused by each complaint (never/rarely/sometimes/often/always). Factor analysis based on a sample of 1047 schoolchildren aged 9 to 15 revealed five complaint complexes containing seven items each, which were subsequently grouped into the following scales: (1) Exhaustion, (2) Gastric Complaints, (3) Pains in Limbs, (4) Circulatory Problems, (5) Cold Symptoms. The sum of the five scales makes up the sixth scale score, overall distress. Besides describing the development of the instrument and its scales, sex- and age-related norms are given and the assessment criteria explained. Procedure and areas of application are also discussed.