@article{ref1,
title="Unraveling the association between pediatric traumatic brain injury and social dysfunction: the mediating role of self-regulation",
journal="Journal of neurotrauma",
year="2019",
author="Ryan, Nicholas Peter and Reyes, Jonathan and Crossley, Louise and Beauchamp, Miriam Helen and Catroppa, Cathy and Anderson, Vicki",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="Social dysfunction is a common and disabling outcome of childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI); however the mechanisms that link early brain injury to impaired social behavior are unclear. This longitudinal prospective study involved 129 children, including 86 children with TBI (53 mild, 33 moderate-severe TBI) and 43 age-matched typically developing control children (TDCs). Children with TBI were recruited via consecutive admissions to the emergency department of the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne Australia. At 6-months post-injury, all participants were assessed on measures of intellectual functioning and parents provided ratings of children's self-regulation skills using gold standard measures of everyday executive function. At 12-month follow up, parents rated children's social adjustment using standardized measures of social skills, communication and behavior. As expected, children with moderate-severe TBI were rated by parents as having greater self-regulation problems, worse social skills, and poorer communication than the mild TBI and TDC groups. In mediation models, greater self-regulation problems at 6-months post injury were predictive of poorer social skills and worse overall social adjustment at 12-month follow-up. Moreover, self-regulation skills mediated the effect of moderate-severe TBI, but not mild TBI, on social skills and overall social adjustment. Our findings show that while deficits in social adjustment are common at 12-months post moderate-severe child TBI, the impact of TBI on these outcomes is likely mediated by its effect on self-regulation skills. Evidence for robust prospective associations between self-regulation deficits and later social adjustment difficulties have implications for early identification of children at high-risk for chronic social problems.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0897-7151",
doi="10.1089/neu.2018.6308",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/neu.2018.6308"
}