Intellectual and emotional functioning in college students following mild traumatic brain injury in childhood and adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether college students with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in childhood or adolescence show residual deficits in intellectual functioning, approaches to studying, or emotional stability. DESIGN: Participants with a history of mild TBI and two control groups. SETTING: Volunteers were recruited from students taking an introductory psychology course. PARTICIPANTS: 79 students with a history of mild TBI, 75 students with a history of general anesthesia, and 93 students with no history of either TBI or general anesthesia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants carried out tests of verbal memory, nonverbal memory, verbal fluency, and nonverbal fluency; in addition, they completed a short form of the Approaches to Studying Inventory and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). RESULTS: In comparison with the two control groups, the students with a history of mild TBI produced similar scores on the cognitive tests and similar orientations to studying. However, they showed a significantly higher level of emotional distress on the SCL-90-R. CONCLUSION: College students with a history of mild TBI in childhood or adolescence are intellectually unimpaired and approach their studying in a similar manner to their uninjured classmates. Nevertheless, they report more severe distress in terms of their general personal and emotional functioning.

Stability of parental nurturance as a salient predictor of self-esteem.

The relationship of parental nurturance to self-esteem for seven distinct adolescent and early-adulthood age groups (N = 784) was investigated. Analysis showed that even though mothers' and fathers' nurturance together were more strongly related to self-esteem during the junior high school years (R2 values greater than 50% were obtained in each of the junior high samples) than during the high school and college years (R2 values less than 40% were obtained in each of these samples), parental nurturance still remained a robust predictor of self-esteem during these latter years. These results were discussed within the context of (a) the stability at different ages of the bases upon which one's judgments of self-esteem are made, and (b) parental nurturance as a stabilizing influence during the transitional years of adolescence and early adulthood.