Abstract
Objective: To determine the validity of parental ratings of their child's overall recovery and social reintegration after pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Setting: Primary care hospital/medical center.
Participants: Ninety-nine children aged 6 to 16 years (80 with TBI and 19 orthopedic trauma controls) evaluated as outpatients.
Main Outcome Measures: Parental ratings of overall recovery and social reintegration; neuropsychological test performance.
Results: Severity of injury correlated with postacute parental ratings of the child's overall recovery (r = -0.498, N = 84, P = .001) and social reintegration (r = -0.507, N = 84, P = .001). A similar correlation was observed between TBI severity and a known "objective" marker of recovery (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III Coding subtest; r = -0.503, N = 84, P = .001).
Conclusions: The present findings support the concurrent validity of parental perspectives of a child's overall recovery and social reintegration after pediatric TBI. Incorporating these views may assist in the rehabilitation of children following brain injury. Parental reasons for judging a child's recovery as "incomplete" may differ as a function of severity of injury.