Pediatric Rheumatology Online Journal → August 2003 → Pain /  Health-Related Quality of Life → Abstract #187

CHILD AND PARENT PERCEPTIONS OF CHILD HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN RHEUMATIC DISEASE: DISCREPANCIES AND CONGRUENCIES FOR ILL AND WELL DYADS

L. K. Rasnake,¹ K. Mervis,¹ K. Belpedio,¹ R. M. Rennebohm,² G. C. Higgins.²

¹Department of Psychology, Denison University, Granville, OH, United States; ²Department of Pediatrics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States

Objective: To assess child and parent perceptions of health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and determine if family relationship variables predict congruencies or discrepancies, in children with severe or longstanding rheumatic diseases.
Methods: Participants were 49 child/parent dyads from a pediatric rheumatology clinic and a matched well child/parent comparison group from a private practice. Children and parents completed a HRQOL inventory. Parents also completed a parenting style inventory, and children 10 years of age completed an attachment measure. T-tests and ANOVAs were used to examine between group differences (ill/well participants) and within group differences (parent/child dyads).
Results: Ill children were perceived by self and parents as having lower HRQOL than well children across several dimensions. The degree of concondance between parent and child perceptions was examined using Pearson correlation coefficients. For parents and children in the ill group, strong to moderate correlations emerged for all HRQOL dimensions. For parents and children in the well group, moderate correlations emerged for only 2 of the 6 dimensions. To further examine congruencies in perceptions, within group comparisons of mean HRQOL ratings for parent and child were made with paired sample t-tests. No significant differences were found for comparisons of mean HRQOL ratings for parents and children in the well group. However, significant differences between perceived child HRQOL for parents and children in the ill group emerged for 8 of the 11 dimensions. No between group differences were found for parenting style or child attachment.
Conclusion: While parents and children with severe or longstanding rheumatic diseases were generally consistent in their perceptions of child HRQOL, parents were more pessimistic than their children. Neither parenting style nor perceived psychological security predicted congruencies or discrepancies.