Psychometric assessment of the Behavior and Attitudes Questionnaire for Healthy Habits: measuring parents' views on food and physical activity.

OBJECTIVE: To assess parents' perspectives of their home environments to establish the validity of scores from the Behavior and Attitudes Questionnaire for Healthy Habits (BAQ-HH). DESIGN: In the present descriptive study, we surveyed a cross-sectional sample of parents of pre-school children. Questionnaire items developed in an iterative process with community-based programming addressed parents' knowledge/awareness, attitudes/concerns and behaviours about healthy foods and physical activity habits with 6-point rating scales. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to psychometrically evaluate scores from the scales. SETTING: English and Spanish versions of the BAQ-HH were administered at parent-teacher conferences for pre-school children at ten Head Start centres across a five-county agency in autumn 2010. SUBJECTS: From 672 families with pre-school children, 532 parents provided responses to the BAQ-HH (79 % response rate). The majority was female (83 %), Hispanic (66 %) or white (16 %), and ages ranged from 20 to 39 years (85 %). RESULTS: Exploratory and confirmatory analyses revealed a knowledge scale (seven items), an attitude scale (four items) and three behaviour subscales (three items each). Correlations were identified between parents' perceptions of home activities and reports of children's habits. Differences were identified by gender and ethnicity groupings. CONCLUSIONS: As a first step in psychometric testing, the dimensionality of each of the three scales (Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours) was identified and scale scores were related to other indicators of child behaviours and parents' demographic characteristics. This questionnaire offers a method to measure parents' views to inform planning and monitoring of obesity-prevention education programmes.

The neuropsychological phenotype of velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS): relationship to psychopathology.

Children with velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS; N=14) and a comparison group of siblings (N=8) underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessment to examine the relationship between cognitive functioning and psychopathology. Significant group differences were obtained on tests of full scale and verbal intellectual functioning and perceptual-motor skills. With the exception of performance on tests of attention and executive functioning, children with VCFS displayed a profile consistent with nonverbal learning disability (NLD). However, within group comparisons revealed significantly poorer visuospatial intellectual and nonverbal memory functioning in sibling controls as well. No significant group differences were obtained on tests of motor speed, academic, language, attention, memory, or executive functioning, with significant variability in children with VCFS frequently accounting for the lack of robust differences. Parent-report measures revealed profiles consistent with ADHD. No clinically significant symptoms of psychosis, depression or anxiety were noted on either self- or parent-report measures. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance was found to be highly and negatively correlated with the Thought Problems subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for VCFS children only, suggesting a possible at-risk indicator for later onset psychopathology.

Rules for the classification of younger children with nonverbal learning disabilities and basic phonological processing disabilities.

Rules for the classification of Nonverbal Learning Disabilities (NLD) and Basic Phonological Processing Disabilities (BPPD) that had been generated and tested on older children (ages 9-15) were applied to younger children (ages 7-8). The goal was to evaluate the applicability of these classification rules for a younger population with NLD and BPPD, and to make revisions if necessary. These rules were used to differentiate these two subtypes of learning disabilities using levels and patterns of performance on motor/psychomotor, tactile/perceptual, visual-spatial, auditory-perceptual, problem solving, and language measures. An experienced child-clinical neuropsychologist classified each child. Only those children who received a classification of NLD or BPPD by the neuropsychologist and those who met criteria for definite or probable NLD and BPPD as defined by the rules were used in this study. Revisions were made to these rules for younger children. Revised rules allow for their use as a source of information to assist a clinician in deciding whether a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation would be valuable. They may also be useful for research purposes.

Neuropsychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency.

Knowledge of the neuropsychological characteristics related to JD and other behavioral disturbances in childhood is an important aspect of pediatric care. Referral of patients with developing behavioral problems for neuropsychological evaluation may assist pediatricians with identifying neuropsychological risk factors for JD, clarifying differential diagnostic questions, providing information for the nature of intervention efforts, and providing useful predictive tools for long-term planning and outcome. Thus, referrals for neuropsychological evaluation should not occur solely within the context of a patient with known central nervous system compromise. Neuropsychological results may be of benefit with disorders wherein the precise brain-behavior relationship is unclear, such as with JD. Once a child's neuropsychological characteristics are known and evaluated from a behavioral risk standpoint, pediatricians will have information that is pivotal to asserting recommendations for modifications to the home and school environments, as well as for direct intervention and treatment. The direction of future neuropsychological research includes the early identification of children and adolescents with potential behavioral disturbance. Accurate early differential diagnosis and knowledge of neuropsychological risk factors help to achieve this goal. Neuropsychological research and knowledge assist with understanding the complexities of interactions between environmental vulnerabilities and neuropsychological risk factors, and can provide useful predictive and preventative information for pediatricians.