Skip Navigation


Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access originally published online on April 5, 2008
Journal of Pediatric Psychology 2008 33(10):1142-1152; doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsn035
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
33/10/1142    most recent
jsn035v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bonner, M. J.
Right arrow Articles by Gururangan, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Bonner, M. J.
Right arrow Articles by Gururangan, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Social Functioning and Facial Expression Recognition in Survivors of Pediatric Brain Tumors*

Melanie J. Bonner, PhD1,2,3, Kristina K. Hardy, PhD1, Victoria W. Willard, BA3, Kelly K. Anthony, PhD1, Maggie Hood, BA1 and Sridharan Gururangan, MRCP2,4

1Department of Psychiatry, 2Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, 3Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, and 4Department of Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center

All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Prof. Melanie J. Bonner, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, DUMC Box 3527, Durham, NC 27710, USA. E-mail: bonne002{at}mc.duke.edu


  Abstract

Objective To assess social functioning and facial expression recognition skill in survivors of pediatric brain tumors (BT) as compared to children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Methods The social functioning of 51 survivors of BT and 31 children with JRA was assessed using a facial expression recognition task, questionnaire ratings of social functioning, and an IQ screener. Results After controlling for estimated IQ, survivors of BT made significantly more errors interpreting adult facial expressions as compared to children with JRA. Additionally, history of therapy and diagnosis age predicted performance on the child portion of the facial recognition task. Finally, survivors of BT demonstrated significantly impaired social functioning across multiple measures when compared to children with JRA. Conclusions Survivors of pediatric BT showed significant deficits in social functioning as compared to an illness comparison group. Errors in facial expression recognition represent another method for evaluating deficits that contribute to social outcomes.

Key words: late effects; pediatric brain tumors; social functioning; survivorship.

*Parts of this article were presented at the National Conference on Child Health Psychology (Gainesville, FL, USA; April, 2006), the Psychosocial and Neurocognitive Consequences of Childhood Cancer: A symposium in tribute to Raymond Mulhern at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, TN, USA; September, 2006) and the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (Boston, MA, USA; March, 2007).

Received July 6, 2007; revision received March 17, 2008; accepted March 17, 2008


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.