Abstracts

Rationale: Parents of children with chronic illness report high levels of mental health problems and studies show that having a child with a low IQ is also a major risk factor for parent stress. Although poor parental mental health is associated with more child behavior problems, few studies have investigated how a low IQ in children with epilepsy affects parent mental health and response to their child’s epilepsy. It was the purpose of this longitudinal study to examine if child IQ is associated with parent outcomes (mental health and response to a child’s epilepsy). Methods: Parents of 301 (146 male) children ages 6 to 14 with new onset epilepsy (first recognized seizure within the last 3 months) were followed for 18 months. Parents were interviewed using the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist (MAACL), the Family Response to Child Illness Scale (FRCIS), and the Parent Mood Scale,(PMS). The MAACL consists of a list of adjectives pertaining to anxiety, depression, and hostility. The FRCIS measures specific parenting perceptions and behaviors related to child discipline, seizure management, autonomy, emotional support, and family leisure activities. The PMS measures parents feelings associated with having a child with seizures. Parents were interviewed via phone at baseline and 18 months. Child IQ was measured using the K-Bit at baseline. Children were placed in one of three groups; low IQ, n = 40 (IQ < 85), mid IQ, n = 98 (IQ 85-100), and high IQ, n = 161 (IQ > 100).Results: Child IQ (M = 100.0) ranged from mildly mentally handicapped to superior intelligence. Parents of children with low IQ reported significantly higher anxiety at baseline (p=.03). At 18 months, the three IQ groups differed marginally in parental depression (p= .08) and parental hostility (p=.09) with parents of children with low IQ reporting the highest levels. At both baseline and at 18 months parent encouragement of child autonomy was lowest for children with low IQ (p=.0002 at each time). Family leisure and family mood were significantly different between the three groups (p<.001 and p=.05 respectively) with the low IQ group faring worse. No differences were found on child discipline and child emotional support. Conclusions: These findings suggest that families of children with both epilepsy and low IQ are at an increased risk for parent mental health problems and fewer family leisure activities. Furthermore, parental mental health may worsen with time. It is interesting that despite these problems, child IQ does not appear to influence parent competence in disciplining or providing emotional support to the child. (This study was funded by NINDS RO1 NS 22416)