The Association between Parent and Child-Report Measures of Alexithymia in Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder

Accurate measures of alexithymia, an inability to recognise and describe one’s own emotions, that are suitable for children are crucial for research into alexithymia’s development. However, previous research suggests that parent versus child reports of alexithymia do not correlate. Potentially, children may report on the awareness of their emotions, whereas parent-report measures may reflect children’s verbal expression of emotion, which may be confounded by children’s communicative abilities, especially in conditions such as Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Given theoretical arguments that alexithymia may develop due to language impairments, further research into alexithymia in DLD is also needed. This project examined parent and child report measures of alexithymia in children with DLD (n = 106) and without DLD (n = 183), and their association to children’s communication skills. Parent and child reports were not significantly correlated in either group, and children with DLD had higher alexithymia scores on the parent-report measure only. Thus, parent and child measures of alexithymia likely reflect different constructs. Pragmatic language problems related to more parent-reported alexithymia, over and above group membership. Structural language abilities were unrelated to alexithymia. We suggest decreased social learning opportunities, rather than a language measure artefact, underlie increased alexithymic difficulties in DLD.

Development of the Family Togetherness Scale: A Mixed-Methods Validation Study in Kenya

Family functioning is an important target of clinical intervention and research given its close ties with mental health outcomes of both children and adults. However, we lack family functioning measures validated for use in many low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings. In this mixed-methods prospective diagnostic accuracy study, we first used formative qualitative data to develop an extensive battery of screening items to measure family functioning in Kenya. We then recruited 30 Kenyan families (N = 44 adults; 30 youth aged 8–17 years) to complete the questionnaires and participate in clinical interviews conducted by local interviewers. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were then conducted to select a subset of screening items that balanced conceptual understanding of family distress with diagnostic efficiency and accuracy to yield a brief but valid scale. The final index test consisting of 30 items correctly identified distressed families in 89% of cases according to adult-report and 76% of cases according to child-report. The optimal cutoffs are associated with estimates of sensitivity/specificity of 0.88/0.90 and 0.75/0.77 for adult-report and child-report measures, respectively. The final measure—the Family Togetherness Scale (FTS)—assesses global family functioning, including items related to family organization, emotional closeness, and communication/problem-solving. In addition to general items, the scale also includes items explicitly assessing family responses to stressors common in LMIC settings. Results establish a strong rationale for larger-scale validation studies.

Who should we ask about mental health symptoms in adolescents with CFS/ME? Parent-child agreement on the revised children’s anxiety and depression scale

Background: One in three adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) have mental health problems. Multi-informant perspectives are key to psychological assessment. Understanding parent-child agreement is crucial to accurate diagnosis, particularly where severe fatigue limits self-report. Methods: Agreement on the revised children’s anxiety and depression scale (RCADs) was assessed between parents and children with CFS/ME ( n = 93) using Bland-Altman plots, cross tabulations and regression analyses. Results: Diagnostic thresholds were met more frequently based on child-report. Parent- and child-report had similar sensitivity and specificity on RCADS compared to gold-standard diagnostic interviews. Regression analysis found similar accuracy between both reports. For anxiety diagnoses, odds ratio (OR) for child-report was 1.10 (CI = 1.06–1.14), and 1.10 (CI = 1.05–1.14) for parent-report. For depression, OR for child report was 1.26 (CI = 1.11–1.43), while for parent-report is was 1.25 (CI = 1.10–1.41). For total score, OR for child-report was 1.10 (CI = 1.05–1.13) while OR for parent-report was 1.09 (CI = 1.05–1.13). Conclusions: Reasonable agreement was observed between parent- and child-report of mental health symptoms in paediatric CFS/ME. While parent-report can facilitate psychological evaluation in CFS/ME, this is not a substitute for a child’s own report.

Impacto da obesidade precoce na qualidade de vida e índices espirométricos de crianças e adolescentes

Objetivo: Avaliar índices espirométricos e qualidade de vida de crianças e adolescentes com obesidade e sua correlação com o índice de massa corporal (IMC). Métodos: Estudo observacional, transversal, quantitativo, composto por 48 voluntários de ambos os sexos, idade de 8 a 12 anos, divididos em Grupo 1 (G1; eutróficos) e Grupo 2 (G2; obesos). Foram coletados dados antropométricos, espirométricos e a resposta dos questionários de qualidade de vida Pediatric Quality of Life Iventory (PedsQL™) child report e Pediatric Quality of Life Iventory (PedsQL™) parents report for child. Os dados estatísticos descritivos e inferenciais foram analisados com auxílio do software BioEstat versão 5.3 considerando p £ 0,05. Resultados: A amostra, com média de idade de 10,42 (±1,28) anos, sendo 60,41% do sexo masculino, não apontou significância estatística para os domínios do questionário de QV entre G1 e G2, assim como para o perfil espirométrico. Porém, observou-se diferença significativa para os escores em quatro domínios quanto a percepção dos pais e dos seus filhos para o PedsQL4.0 Conclusão: Não houve correlação direta entre o IMC, dados espirométricos e a qualidade de vida dos voluntários estudados.

A-115 Predictors of Depressive Symptoms in Adolescent Patients Following Concussion

Objective The present study sought to examine specific predictors and factors associated with depressive symptoms at initial(V1) and subsequent(V2) visits following concussion in adolescents. Methods This study enrolled adolescents aged 10–18 (14.5 ± 2.2 years) within 30 days of a diagnosed concussion. Patients completed Mood and Feelings Questionnaire-Short-Child Report (MFQC), Postconcussion Symptom Scale (PCSS), neurocognitive testing(ImPACT), and Vestibular-Ocular Motor Screening. Logistic regression (LR) analyses evaluated risk factors and clinical presentation as predictors of post-injury MFQP scores above a cutpoint of 8. Results Participants included 113 adolescents (50.4% male; 77% sport-related) who presented for V1 8.9 ± 6.2 days post-injury and V2 18.43 ± 11.9 days after V1. Overall, 5.3% reported pre-injury depression and 15.8% reported post-injury depressive symptoms above clinical cutoff on the MFQC. The LR model predicting increased depressive symptoms at V1 was significant (R2 = 45.0%, p = .007), supporting post-traumatic amnesia(PTA; OR = 3.15, 1.01–9.88) as a predictor. The LR model predicting depressive symptoms at V2 was significant (R2 = 62.2%, p = .021), supporting history of depression(OR = 25.5, 3.86–168.2) as the only significant predictor. Those scoring above 8 on the MFQC at V1 were more likely to have a prolonged recovery(over 30 days; OR = 10.4, 1.29–83.6). Conclussions The primary findings indicated that PTA was associated with increased depressive symptoms earlier, whereas a history of depression was associated with increase depressive symptoms later following concussion. Patients scoring higher on depressive symptoms were 10 times more likely to have a prolonged recovery. Together, these findings highlight the importance of evaluating depressive symptoms and factors that are associated with these symptoms to inform prognosis and earlier treatment for depressive symptoms following concussion.