BACKGROUND: Juvenile psoriasis is a chronic and incurable skin disease that affects approximately 0·7% of children. OBJECTIVES: To achieve more insight into the quality of life (QoL) in childhood psoriasis and to investigate whether disease severity scores correlate with QoL scores. METHODS: All consecutive patients with juvenile plaque psoriasis (≤ 18 years old) who visited our outpatient department were included. At baseline, the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) questionnaire was completed and disease severity was assessed by the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and the Physician Global Assessment (PGA). RESULTS: Thirty-nine patients were included in the study. A median CDLQI of 6 [interquartile range (IQR) 5–9] was reported. Median PASI was 6·3 (IQR 3·3–8·2) and median PGA was 2 (IQR 1–3). The correlation coefficient between PASI and CDLQI was 0·47 (P = 0·003), whereas the correlation coefficient between PGA and CDLQI was 0·51 (P = 0·001). CONCLUSIONS: The negative effect on QoL in juvenile psoriasis was confirmed in the largest cohort presented up to now. The correlation between disease severity scores and disease-related QoL in children with psoriasis is only moderate. Therefore, both clinical outcome parameters (PASI, PGA) and measures of QoL (CDLQI) should be included in adequate, patient-oriented clinical decision making.