Parental and Family Functioning as Predictors of Longitudinal Trajectories of Postconcussive Symptoms Following Pediatric Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: An Advancing Concussion Assessment in Pediatrics Study

Abstract

The family environment plays an important role in children’s recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, parental and family factors have not been examined in-depth in pediatric mild TBI (mTBI). Existing research on postconcussive symptoms (PCS) typically employs conventional statistical analyses that assume that children with mTBI are a homogenous group. However, children may display distinct trajectories of PCS across time after mTBI. Group-based multitrajectory modeling can identify latent clusters of individuals following similar trajectories across multiple indicators of an outcome. This study sought to: (1) identify trajectories of PCS after mTBI in children, and (2) examine their association with parental and family functioning. Participants were 506 children and adolescents aged 8- to 16-years-old who were recruited during emergency department (ED) visits within 48 h of injury at five Pediatric Emergency Research Canada hospitals. Injury information was collected in the ED, and parental and family functioning was measured at approximately 7 days postinjury. Child and parent PCS ratings were obtained weekly to 3 months and biweekly to 6 months postinjury using the Health and Behavior Inventory. Parental and family functioning were assessed using validated measures of family functioning, parental adjustment, perceived social support from parents, and parental responses to children’s symptom complaints. Group-based multitrajectory modeling was used to classify individual children into distinct trajectories of child- and parent-reported cognitive and somatic PCS over time and to examine predictors of those trajectories. Six distinct trajectories were identified: “low acute/resolved PCS” (n = 98), “low acute/declining PCS” (n = 64), “moderate acute/elevated cognitive PCS” (n = 106), “moderate acute/declining PCS” (n = 118), “high acute/declining PCS” (n = 88), and “high acute/persisting PCS” (n = 32). Parental adjustment, protectiveness, and social support were independent predictors of trajectory membership after adjusting for demographic and injury characteristics. The identification of different symptom trajectories and specific aspects of parental and family functioning as predictors of these trajectories provides guidance for developing family-based treatments and targeting treatments to children at risk for poor recovery.