Abstracts

RATIONALE: One-third of all epilepsy is present in children. Self-attitude in children is negatively influenced by the presence of epilepsy. A weeklong overnight summer camp exclusively for children with epilepsy offers an opportunity to feel less estranged from their peers, and provides an opportunity to increase self-attitude. We set out to determine whether this camp experience could improve the self-attitude of children with epilepsy.
METHODS: We used the Child Attitude Toward Illness scale (CATIS; Austin and Huberty, 1993). The CATIS is a 13-item questionnaire appropriate for children ages 8-17 which measures a child[ssquote]s favorable or unfavorable attitude towards having a chronic illness. Each question was scored on a five point scale with higher scores indicating more positive attitudes. The CATIS was mailed with an accompanying cover letter and instruction sheet for both pre-camp and post-camp periods. The letter requested that parents or guardians help the child by clarifying the questions being asked (if necessary), but to refrain from influencing their answers. 21 children ranging in age from 10 to 15 years completed the CATIS pre-camp and 19 completed it post-camp; unfortunately, only 11 children completed both the pre- and post-camp questionnaires.
RESULTS: Inter-item reliability of the CATIS was found to be high, the standardized item alpha equaling .79. An average of the CATIS items was thus calculated to be used in subsequent analyses. A t-test was performed with the 11 children comparing pre- and post-camp CATIS responses which revealed a non-significant numerical trend towards improved self-attitude after attending camp [3.55 vs. 3.80, t(10)=1.78, p=.105]. We hypothesized that the lack of significance may have been due to two factors. First, the small sample size likely limited our power to detect significant differences. Second, we wondered whether just the anticipation and excitement of going to camp could have played a role in improving self-attitude. To explore this hypothesis, we sent out CATIS questionnaires to a control group of 11 similarly aged children with epilepsy who did not attend the camp. A one-way analysis of variance comparing the 21 pre-camp responses to those of the control group revealed significant differences demonstrating that those children anticipating camp reported higher levels of self-attitude than those who were not going to camp [3.55 vs. 2.89, F(1,30)=11.35, p=.002].
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that a weeklong summer camp may be able to improve self-attitude in children with epilepsy. Further, this improvement may be observed prior to attending camp, presumably due to the positive anticipation felt by the child. Additional research with larger samples will be needed to confirm these preliminary findings.
[Supported by: Donations to Camp Wee-Kan-Tu: A Camp for Champs]