In Chapter 1 the theoretical concept of childhood disablement is explained. In addition, a brief introduction is presented, regarding pediatric functional status measurement, and more specifically the subject of this thesis: the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory. The aims and outline of the thesis are formulated. In Chapter 2 the applicability of the PEDI in the Netherlands is studied involving a sample of 20 Dutch children without disabilities. Their functional status outcome is compared to American peers; the Rasch statistical model was used to analyze the Dutch data. Score profiles were found not to be compatible with the score profiles of American children. More specifically, the data suggested inter-cultural differences. Based on this study, it is argued that cross-cultural validation of the PEDI was necessary before using it in the Netherlands. The translation and adaptation procedure in developing a Dutch version of the PEDI was based on current scientific guidelines in cross-cultural research as outlined in Chapter 3. A content validity study of the Dutch PEDI was subsequently performed and is also presented in this chapter. In this study, 31 allied health professionals completed a validity questionnaire. They confirmed the functional content and feasibility of the Dutch PEDI for pediatric functional status measurement. Both the adaptation process and content validity study generated the addition of eight new questions into the Dutch PEDI. Four of them are linked to an essential daily childhood activity in the Netherlands: ‘bicycling’. In Chapter 4 the reliability of the Dutch PEDI is examined. Therefore, parents of 64 children without disabilities and parents of 31 children with disabilities were interviewed. Inter-interviewer reliability was studied afterscoring audio-taped interviews by a second researcher. For intra-respondent reliability the same parent was interviewed twice within two weeks; for inter-respondent reliability both parents of a child were interviewed independently within a ...