COGNITIVE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PREDICTORS OF EVERYDAY MEMORY IN CHILDREN WITH EPILEPSY
Abstract number :
2.182
Submission category :
Year :
2003
Submission ID :
3849
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/6/2003 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Dec 1, 2003, 06:00 AM
Authors :
Darren S. Kadis, Mary Lou Smith, Melanie Stollstorff, Lucyna Lach, Irene Elliott Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Psychology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississ
Children with epilepsy are known to have deficits on objective measures of learning and memory. Parents and children themselves report that memory deficits have an impact on everyday functioning. In adults with epilepsy, self-report of memory is more strongly associated with depression than performance on memory tests. The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of everyday memory in children with epilepsy, using self- and parent-report measures and standard neuropsychological tests.
Participants included 32 children and adolescents (13 male, 19 female; [italic]M[/italic] age 14.1, range 7.3-17.9) with medically refractory epilepsy, and their healthy parents. Parents completed a questionnaire (Parent Memory Questionnaire; PMQ) assessing their child[rsquo]s ability to remember information and events in the context of their daily routines. A subset of children (22: 7 male, 15 female; [italic]M[/italic] age 14.9, range 11.4-17.9) completed a self-report version of the questionnaire (Child Memory Questionnaire; CMQ); children below 10 years of age and/or with low IQ ([le] 70) did not complete self-ratings. All children completed a battery of objective tests assessing intelligence, visual and verbal memory, and sustained attention. Parents completed the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), from which the attention and anxiety/depression subscales were used as ratings of everyday attention and emotional status, respectively. Separate standard multiple regressions were carried out on PMQ and CMQ scores (the dependant variables). Intelligence, memory, and attention variables were included in each regression model if their bivariate correlation with the dependant variable occurred at a probability of [le] .20.
For both the child and parent rating regression models, only CBCL attention uniquely predicted everyday memory estimates, accounting for 29% of unique variance in CMQ scores and 29% of unique variance in PMQ scores (each significant at [italic]p[/italic] [le] .05).
Results suggest that self-reported everyday memory function in children with epilepsy differs from that of adults. Everyday attentional problems may underlie everyday memory problems in children with medically refractory epilepsy. The similarity in the regression models for the PMQ and CMQ suggests that parents and children consider the same information when estimating the everyday impact of the child[rsquo]s memory problems.
[Supported by: The Ontario Mental Health Foundation.]