The Young Spine Questionnaire (9-12 years)
General
The Young Spine Questionnaire 9-12 (YSQ 9-12) is an instrument for assessing spinal pain in children aged 9 to 12 years. It covers prevalence, frequency, pain intensity, activity limitations, care-seeking behaviour, and parental back trouble.
Purpose
The YSQ 9-12 is intended primarily for epidemiological use in cross-sectional studies describing spinal pain in children. Items are analysed individually, and no total or subscale scores are produced. The instrument is not designed as an outcome measure, does not assess an underlying latent construct, and is not intended to measure change over time.
User guide
The YSQ 9-12 user guide contain general information about the development and structure of the questionnaire and scoring instructions.
- YSQ 9-12 user guide →
(updated 26-09-2025)
Terms and conditions
Licence
The YSQ (9-12) questionnaire may be used free of charge for non-commercial clinical or scientific purposes, provided it is applied as described in the original development and validation article and the user guide. The instruments may not be modified, edited, shortened, expanded, translated, or otherwise altered without prior written permission from the copyright holder, and all uses must cite the original publication(s) appropriately.
Definition of commercial use
Any use that is primarily intended for, or results in, direct or indirect financial gain or competitive advantage. Examples include:
- Incorporating the questionnaire into software, apps, books, courses, devices or other products that are sold, licensed or subscription-based.
- Use by private clinics or other health-care providers when administration of the questionnaire is billed to patients, insurers or sponsors.
- Use by contract research organisations, pharmaceutical or med-tech companies, or other for-profit entities in sponsored studies, product development or marketing.
- Redistribution, translation, adaptation or modification of the questionnaire for sale or licensing.
Permitted non-commercial use (illustrative)
- Publicly funded or grant-funded academic research.
- Routine outcome monitoring in publicly financed health care where no separate fee is charged for the questionnaire.
- Teaching and training in universities or other non-profit educational settings.
For any intended commercial use, or if in doubt, please contact the copyright holder to obtain a commercial licence.
Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the YSQ 9-12
If you wish to translate and cross-culturally adapt the YSQ 9-12 into another language, please send a request to Henrik Hein Lauridsen on e-mail: hlauridsen@health.sdu.dk. Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the YSQ 9-12 uses the English version (see below) and must follow the guidelines outlined by Beaton et al. → abstract.
The following templates have to be filled out during the translation process:
- YSQ 9-12 forward translation →
- YSQ 9-12 forward translation – synthesis →
- YSQ 9-12 backward translation →
- YSQ 9-12 backward translation – synthesis →
When translation and cross-cultural adaptation has been completed, we ask that all the documentation and the final translated version are forwarded to Henrik Hein Lauridsen.
We collect and publish all translated versions of the YSQ 9-12 on this website to avoid multiple translations of the questionnaire in a specific language.
Danish version →
This is the Danish version of the YSQ 9-12. The questionnaire has been developed in Danish and tested on 4th. grade children.
Lauridsen HH, Hestbaek L. Development of the young spine questionnaire. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2013 Jun 12;14(1):185 → abstract
English version →
This is the English version of the YSQ 9-12. It has been translated and cross-culturally adapted into English using the first 3 phases of the method described by Beaton et al. (2000).
Lauridsen HH, Hestbaek L. Development of the young spine questionnaire. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2013 Jun 12;14(1):185 → abstract
German version →
This is the German version of the YSQ 9-12. It has been translated and cross-culturally adapted into German using the Beaton et al. (2000) method. A validation study will be published shortly. The translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation has been performed by Dr. Brigitte Wirth (e-mail: Brigitte.Wirth@balgrist.ch) from University of Zürich.
Nyirö L et al. Translation and validation of the German version of the Young Spine Questionnaire → abstract
Portuguese version (European Portuguese) →
This is the European Portuguese version of the YSQ 9-12. It has been translated and cross-culturally adapted using the Beaton et al. (2000) method by Jorge Teixeira (e-mail: jorgemmtteixeira@gmail.com). The final translation report is available here. The official validation is published in Acta Reumatologica Portuguesa and can be found here:
Portuguese translation, cross-cultural adaptation and reliability of Young Spine Questionnaire → abstract
An unofficial version of the European Portuguese version the YSQ 9-12 has been published in the Brazilian journal ‘Coluna/Columna‘ (full article here) which is not indexed in PubMed. The developers of the YSQ 9-12 have not approved this version and we therefore do NOT recommend using it.
Portuguese version (Brazilian Portuguese) →
This is the Brazilian Portuguese version of the YSQ 9-12. It has been translated and cross-culturally adapted using the Beaton et al. (2000) method by Maria Célia Cunha Ciaccia (e-mail: ciaccia@uol.com.br) and colleagues. A validation study is under way and will be published shortly.
Hungarian version →
This is the Hungarian version of the YSQ 9-12. It has been translated and cross-culturally adapted using the Beaton et al. (2000) method by Nóra Tanács-Gulyás (e-mail: gulyasnora.gyogytorna@gmail.com).
A validation article is under way.
Polish version → under development
The Polish version of the YSQ 9-12 is underway and will be available in due course. It will be translated and cross-culturally adapted using the Beaton et al. (2000) method followed by a validation study by Dr. Katarzyna Zaborowska-Sapeta and her research team (e-mail: dr.zaborowska@gmail.com).
Arabic version → under development
The Arabic version of the YSQ 9-12 is underway and will be available in due course. It will be translated and cross-culturally adapted using the Beaton et al. (2000) method followed by a validation study by Dr. Salah Eldin Bassit Ahmed Elsayed (e-mail: utcsalah@cu.edu.eg).
Turkish version →
This is the Turkish version of the YSQ 9-12. It has been translated and cross-culturally adapted using the Beaton et al. (2000) method. A validation study has been carried out by Dr. Kamil Duran (e-mail: durankamil38@gmail.com) and his research team from the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation School of Kırsehir Ahi Evran University, and the publication is under way.
Italian version →
This is the Italian version of the YSQ 9-12. It has be translated and cross-culturally adapted using the Beaton et al. (2000) method by Dr. Francesca Policastro (e-mail: franci.poli7@gmail.com) and colleagues from University of Trieste.
Francesca Policastro et al. Translation, Adaptation, and Validation of the Young Spine Questionnaire for the Italian Children (2025) → abstract
Slovenian version →
This is the Slovenian version of the YSQ 9-12. It has been translated and cross-culturally adapted using the Beaton et al. (2000) method by Anemarija Majcen and colleagues from the Faculty of Health at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (e-mail: anemarija.majcen@gmail.com). The final translation documents are available here.
Slovenian YSQ 9-12 user guide →
Pakistani version (Urdu) →
This is the Pakistani version (Urdu version) of the YSQ 9-12. It has been translated and cross-culturally adapted using the Beaton et al. (2000) method by Dr. Aisha Razzaq (e-mail: aisha.razzaq@riphah.edu.pk) and Dr. Rimsha Kanwal (e-mail: rimshakanwal261999@gmail.com) from the Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation and Allied Health Sciences, Riphah International University, Pakistan. The final translation documents are available here.
Revision history
The original Danish YSQ 9-12 and some of the translated versions have been updated or changed to improve the psychometric properties or fit certain research designs. All revisions are shown in the table below.
| English version | ||
| Date | Original questionnaire wording and reason for changes | Change/new wording |
| 7-4-2014 | Question 1a, 2a and 3a: ‘Have you had pain in the neck/midt back/low back?’ This has been changed so the stem of the question fits the answer categories. |
How often have you had pain in the neck/midt back/low back?’ |
| 05-12-2023 | The introduction to the questionnaire uses ‘…related to the spine and neck’. Spine has been changed to back.To follow the order of the areas introduced in the questionnaire, the sequence has now been changed to ‘the neck and back’ in the introduction, 4a, 4b, 4c, 5a and 5c. |
Introduction: This questionnaire is related to the neck and back.
4a: Have you stayed home from school because of neck or back pain?
|
| Danish version | ||
| Dato | Original formulering og begrundelse for ændring | Ændring/ny formulering |
| 7-4-2014 | Question 1a, 2a and 3a: ‘Har du haft ondt i nakken/midt på ryggen/lænden?’This question has been changed so the question matches the answer categories by adding ‘often’ (tit). |
‘Hvor tit har du haft ondt i nakken/midt på ryggen/lænden?’ |
| 7-4-2014 | A comma has been added after ‘viser’ in question 2d. |
Ansigterne nedenfor viser, hvor meget noget kan gøre ondt. Smerten stiger fra ”ikke ondt” til ”rigtig meget ondt”. |
| German version |
||
| Date |
Original questionnaire wording and reason for changes | Change/new wording |
| 6-6-2019 |
A sentence describing that back pain due to menstruation are not of interest when the female children are answering the question have been added to the introduction. |
Introductory text: An die Mädchen: Im Folgenden wird nur nach Rückenschmerzen gefragt, welche nicht im Zusammenhang mit deiner Monatsblutung (Menstruation/Periode) auftreten. |