THE AIM OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO VALIDATE THE FAMILY QUALITY OF LIFE SCALE (FQLS) IN A CHILEAN POPULATION AND TO ANALYZE THE FACTOR STRUCTURE (SCOPE) OF THIS RESEARCH TOOL THROUGH THE CRITICAL AREA MAP. CROSS-SECTIONAL, CORRELATIONAL, AND CAUSAL STUDY WAS CARRY ON 316 FAMILIES. THE SPANISH VERSION OF THE FQSL WAS USED. AN EXPLORATORY AND CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS WAS CONDUCTED. RESULTS SHOWED CRONBACH´S ALPHA FOR THE FQLS SUBSCALES ON IMPORTANCE RATE WAS 0.884 AND ON SATISFACTION 0.891. THE EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS FOUND FIVE DIMENSIONS FOR BOTH CATEGORIES, AND THE CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS SHOWED FACTOR LOADINGS GREATER THAN 0.5 FOR EACH DIMENSION. REGARDING DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY, THE CROSS-LOADINGS VARIED BETWEEN 0.64 TO 0.97 ON IMPORTANCE AND 0.62 TO 0.98 ON SATISFACTION. IN RELATION TO CONVERGENT VALIDITY, EACH DIMENSION REACHED A VARIANCE ABOVE 0.5. CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY PROVED A RELIABLE AND VALID TOOL TO MEASURE FEATURES OF FAMILY QUALITY OF LIFE IN A CHILEAN POPULATION. THE INSTRUMENT HAS HIGH LEVELS OF INTERNAL CONSISTENCY AND SUITABLE DISCRIMINANT AND CONVERGENT VALIDITY.

THIS STUDY EXAMINED THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PARENTING STRESS, FAMILY FUNCTIONING, CHILD BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS, LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, MOTHER'S EDUCATION, CHILD'S SEX, CHILD'S AGE, AND CHILD'S HEARING DEVICE IN A CROSS-SECTIONAL SAMPLE OF 37 MOTHERS WITH TYPICAL HEARING WHO HAVE CHILDREN WHO ARE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING ENROLLED IN EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS USING ORAL METHODOLOGY IN SPAIN. MOTHERS COMPLETED THE PARENTING STRESS INDEX/SHORT FORM, THE FAMILY ADAPTABILITY AND COHESION SCALE QUESTIONNAIRE, AND THE BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT SYSTEM FOR CHILDREN. THEIR CHILDREN COMPLETED THE REYNELL TEST FOR LANGUAGE. UTILIZING LINEAR MODEL ANALYSIS, WE IDENTIFIED THAT FAMILY COHESION, INTERNALIZING PROBLEMS, AND ADAPTIVE SKILLS IN CHILDREN WHO ARE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING EXPLAIN 66% OF THE VARIANCE OF PARENTING STRESS. EVIDENCE SUPPORTS THE RELEVANCE OF CONSIDERING FAMILY FUNCTIONING IN PARENTING STRESS ASSESSMENT IN FAMILIES WITH TYPICAL HEARING WHO HAVE CHILDREN WHO ARE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING. ALONG WITH HELPFUL EXISTING RESEARCH, GREATER INSIGHT MIGHT FACILITATE THE SUPPORT OF INTERVENTION PROGRAMS.