ABSTRACT
Despite the prevalence of seizure disorders in children, little is known about how youngsters with epilepsy understand the cause of their disorder. Fifty children and adolescents with idiopathic seizure disorders, between 5- and 16-years-old, were questioned about the etiology of seizure episodes and of seizure disorders, as well as their understanding of physical causality, general illness causality, and brain functioning. Responses were scored for their conceptual complexity according to scales paralleling Piaget's stages of cognitive development. Older children had more cognitively sophisticated concepts of epilepsy than did younger children. Overall, however, children scored significantly lower on questions about their seizure disorders than on questions assessing their understanding of physical causality, general illness causality, and brain functioning. Many children had misconceptions about seizure disorders and lacked disease-related information; only 41% of the children identified epilepsy as a disease involving the brain. These findings underline the need for including educational intervention in the comprehensive care of pediatric seizure disorders.
Subject(s)
Child Development/physiology , Seizures/etiology , Adolescent , Child , Child Language , Child, Preschool , Cognition , Female , Humans , Language Development , Language Tests , Male , Self ConceptABSTRACT
The present study examined the extent to which mothers' ratings of their psychological distress, marital adjustment, and negative life events were related to maternal ratings of child behavior problems. Data were collected from mothers of 110 children (ages 2 to 12 years) who were referred to a pediatric clinic for a variety of common behavioral concerns. Maternal psychological distress and marital adjustment were significantly correlated with mothers' ratings on a child behavior checklist. Maternal psychological distress also accounted for a significant amount of the variance in maternal child behavior ratings over and above that accounted for by fathers' ratings of the same behaviors. Given that maternal characteristics co-vary significantly with reports of child behavior problems, pediatricians should interpret findings derived from child behavior rating scales within the overall family context.
Subject(s)
Child Behavior Disorders/epidemiology , Mothers/psychology , Stress, Psychological/complications , Adaptation, Psychological , Child , Child Behavior Disorders/diagnosis , Child Behavior Disorders/etiology , Child, Preschool , Employment/psychology , Hospitals, University , Humans , Internal-External Control , Life Change Events , Marriage/psychology , Mass Screening , Models, Psychological , Outpatient Clinics, Hospital , Pediatrics/methods , Risk Factors , Socioeconomic Factors , Stress, Psychological/diagnosis , Stress, Psychological/psychology , Surveys and Questionnaires/standards , Tennessee/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Identified types and frequencies of psychological difficulties manifested by pediatric oncology patients and child-, family-, and illness-related correlates of adjustment. Parents of 48 children with cancer, 4 to 17 years of age, completed the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC). Analysis of mean PIC scores indicated that the children had a high frequency of somatic concerns and problems in academic functioning. Similar mean PIC profiles were obtained for children across gender, age, and diagnostic groups. Overall, 52% of the children had profiles with two or more clinically significant problem areas. Children's adjustment was associated with gender, social competence, and parental coping. Boys exhibited significantly more problems than did girls. Children whom teachers rated as less socially competent and whose parents reported few effective coping responses exhibited greater difficulties in adjustment.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Neoplasms/psychology , Personality Inventory , Stress, Psychological/diagnosis , Adolescent , Child , Female , Humans , Incidence , Male , Risk Factors , Stress, Psychological/epidemiology , Stress, Psychological/psychologyABSTRACT
The Lewis group system is intricately related to the secretor system, which in turn controls the presence of ABH factors in human secretions. It has been suggested that Lewis typing of secretion stains could help to verify non-secretor results obtained in ABO typing; however, the literature contains conflicting reports on the presence of Lewis substances in secretions. As a preliminary study in the investigation into the usefulness of Lewis typing in case-work, we examined paired saliva and vaginal stains and paired saliva and semen stains from laboratory donors. The activity of Lewis substances per se in these secretions and their viability in stains over a ten-week period are described.
