Purpose: The Auditory Behavior in Everyday Life (ABEL) questionnaire has been proven for its reliability and validity across various cultures for assessing auditory behaviors of children with hearing loss. The study's purpose was to translate the ABEL questionnaire into Korean and verify reliability and validity of Korean version of ABEL (ABEL-K). Methods: After translation, the ABEL-K evaluated for appropriateness, and back translated by a bilingual user to compare to the original regarding semantic equivalence. ABEL-K was completed by 48 parents of children (from ages 3-15 years) with hearing loss (9 children with hearing aids and 39 children with cochlear implants). Among the 48 children, 11 were in preschool, 16 in elementary, and 21 in secondary. Internal consistency reliability of ABEL-K was verified by Chronbach's alpha. The mixed factorial ANOVA was conducted to compare the age group and the evaluation areas (aural-oral, auditory awareness, and social/conversational skills). The Pearson Correlation Coefficient between the scores and chronological age, and scores and period of CI experience were evaluated, respectively. Results: The results indicated that although ABEL-K showed good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.90), there seems to be issues in its validity due to ambiguous expression and the cultural differences. The ABEL scores among age groups were not significantly different. However, there was a significant difference in ABEL scores between auditory awareness and social/conversational skill areas. There was significant correlation with CI experience, but not with chronological age. Conclusion: Thus, this study suggests a way that ABEL-K should be utilized, taking precautions in the interpretation of the results.
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