Perceptive social support among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder

Introduction Social support, especially as provided by close family and friends, has been consistently identified as one of the most powerful predictors of psychological adjustment among parents raising children with ASD. Material and methods A cross-sectional study including 51 parents of children with ASD was carried out in our pediatric development department. The objective of the study was to verify the degree of satisfaction of the participants regarding their family, friends, intimacy, and social activities. Results There was a negative correlation between the childrens age and the degree of parental satisfaction. There was a statistically significant association between the parents' educational level and the degree of satisfaction reported by them in all domains, except for the family domain. Conclusion Based on study findings regarding the importance of help from parents informal social network, special attention in this regard should be focused on developing services that assist parents in making more effective use of existing sources of support from family members, friends, and other parents of children with ASD.</jats:p

Perturbação alimentar: uma história antiga, um diagnóstico recente

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Avaliação do Processamento Fonológico e Compreensão em Crianças com PHDA

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Mothers' eating styles influence on their feeding practices and on their children's appetite traits

Background: Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents has become an important public health concern in the last decades. To study the way mothers and childrens behavioral factors interact with each other, influencing eating and body weight, may provide information to be used in preventive and treatment strategies.Goals: To study the association of mothers eating style on their feeding behavior and on their childrens eating behavior.Methods: Cross-sectional observational study with a non-probabilistic sample of mother and child dyads (from three schools). Mothers eating behavior (assessed with Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire scale; DEBQ) was classified and they were grouped into three eating styles: restrictive, emotional-external or neutral styles. Mothers feeding restriction, pressure to eat and concern about childs weight were assessed (through the Child Feeding Questionnaire; CFQ). Finally, mothers classified their childs appetite behaviors (with the Childrens Eating Behaviour Questionnaire; CEBQ).Results: Overall, participated 279 mothers, aged between 23 and 59 years (Mean= 38.03 years, SD=5.09) and respective children (n=279), aged between 6 and 13 years (Mean= 9.43 years, SD= 1.35), 140 of those were females (50.2 %). Associations between mothers eating style, their feeding behaviors and childrens appetite traits showed that restrictive and emotional-external eating mothers had higher scores of CFQ and CEBQ items related with obesity, when compared to neutral eating style mothers. Mothers feeding restriction and childrens weight concern associated positively with childrens food approach behaviors (enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, emotional over-eating), and negatively with food avoidance behaviors (satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating). On the contrary, pressure to eat associated positively with food avoidance behaviors and negatively with food approach behaviors. Mothers concern about child weight and feeding restriction were positively associated with CEBQ subscales that reflect food approach and negatively associated with subscales that reflect food avoidance. Pressure to eat had the symmetric associations. Discussion: Results support the hypothesis of the transmission of eating behaviors that promote obesity from mothers to children, and have implications both for prevention and children and adolescents obesity treatment. Therefore, mothers should be a part of the intervention when treating their children obesity</jats:p

Avaliação do stress parental em mães de crianças com perturbação de hiperatividade com défice de atenção

Introdução: Pretendeu-se identificar os níveis de stress nas mães de crianças e adolescentes com perturbação de hiperatividadecom défice de atenção e verificar se existe uma associação entre o stress percecionado por estas mães e o funcionamento familiar.Métodos: Foram utilizados o índice de stress parental, versão reduzida, que caracteriza o stress parental total de acordo comtrês dimensões (dificuldade parental, interação pais / criança e criança difícil), e a escala de avaliação da adaptabilidade e coesãofamiliar, que classifica as famílias em equilibradas, meio-termo ou extremas.Resultados: Participaram neste estudo 89 mães. Obtiveram-se valores médios no questionário índice de stress parental acimado percentil 85 (valor de cutoff) nas subescalas interação disfuncional criança-pais, criança difícil e no valor de stress total.Verificou-se ainda que havia uma forte correlação entre stress total e as três subescalas, isto é, mães com níveis mais elevadosde stress tendem a ter uma maior perceção de dificuldade parental, de interação disfuncional com a criança e de criança difícil.Não se verificaram diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre o tipo de família (equilibrada versus meio-termo ou extrema,ou monoparental versus nuclear) e o stress parental.Discussão: Concluiu-se que as mães das crianças com perturbação de hiperatividade com défice de atenção apresentam elevadosníveis de stress, o qual parece advir fundamentalmente das características da criança, que é percecionada como sendouma criança difícil, e de uma interação disfuncional entre os pais e a criança. Não parece haver relação entre o nível de stressexperienciado por estas mães e a funcionalidade ou organização da famíli

The impact of COVID-19 on children with autism spectrum disorder

Introduction. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience changing routines as a major challenge. For that reason, the need for adaptation during COVID-19 pandemic may have brought major problems to families with children with this pathology. Aim. To explore how children with ASD and their parents experienced the social isolation during COVID-19 outbreak period. Subjects and methods. We conducted an observational, cross-sectional and analytical study. We applied an anonymous questionnaire that included children's demographic and clinical characteristics, along with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in different aspects of family's daily life. Results. Out of 99 questionnaires obtained, 43 were related to children with ASD and 56 to control group. Children with ASD predominantly had changes in behavior, while children from control group mostly found no changes. The majority of parents of ASD children reported a negative impact in emotion management against those in control group reporting mostly positive or no impact. Caregivers reported higher mean scores of anxiety levels in themselves than in their children. ASD children and their parents had higher levels of anxiety than healthy ones. In the group with ASD, children that did not maintain routines had higher mean levels of anxiety than children that maintained routines. Conclusion. Our results show a potential important psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic not only in children with neurodevelopmental disorders but in their caregivers as well. Physicians must be prepared for the post-pandemic surveillance of mental disorders among families

Burnout num hospital pediátrico

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Impacto da restrição materna e atitude restritiva sobre a criança no seu estado ponderal

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Theory of mind in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Introduction. Theory of mind (TM) is involved in social cognition, as it evaluates our ability to impute our mental states to the others in order to predict and explain behaviour. In the literature, it has been noticed that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show some impairments of TM when compared with children not neurodevelopmental impaired. Our goal in this study was to compare the TM in two groups: schooler children with normal development and schooler children with ADHD. Subjects and methods. A total of 35 children, aged between 6 and 12 years, were recruited: 17 with ADHD and 18 not neurodevelopmental impaired. TM was evaluated using an assessment method validated for the Portuguese population: Turtle on the Island-Battery of Assessment of Executive Functions in Children. Results. We obtained two comparable groups concerning sociodemographic data. There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding TM. Conclusion. The TM assessment in Portuguese children did not reveal significant impairment regarding this cognitive skill in children with ADHD