Citation

Alisic E, Barrett A, Bowles P, Babl FE, Conroy R, McClure RJ, Anderson V, Mehl MR. BMJ Open 2015; 5(2): e007393.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007393

PMID

25652805

PMCID

PMC4322211

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: One in six children who have been admitted to hospital with an injury develop persistent stress symptoms that put their development at risk. Parents play a crucial role in children's psychological recovery, however, it is unknown how specific parenting behaviours can help or hinder. We aim to describe the nature and quantity of parent-child communication after a child has been injured, and to examine how these interactions are related to children's psychological recovery.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We are conducting a prospective observational study among children aged 3-16 years, who have been admitted to a tertiary children's hospital with a serious injury. Data collection involves a naturalistic observation of spontaneous, everyday parent-child communication at home, shortly after discharge, and an assessment of children's psychological recovery at 6 weeks and 3 months post-injury. Main analyses comprise descriptive statistics, cluster analysis and analyses of variance. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne (33103) and Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (CF13/2515-2013001322). We aim to disseminate the findings through international peer-reviewed journals, international conferences and social media. Participants will be sent a summary of the overall study findings.

Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Language: en

Keywords

MENTAL HEALTH; PAEDIATRICS; SOCIAL MEDICINE