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Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access published online on April 5, 2008
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsn035
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© 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


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