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PROS Child Behavior Study

The Family APGAR and Psychosocial Problems in Children: A Report From PROS & ASPN

PROS Pearls:

* As part of the Child Behavior Study, investigators examined the relationship between the lack of social support as measured by the Family APGAR, a five-item questionnaire designed to assess adult satisfaction with social support, and the identification of psychosocial problems in their children, and other sociodemographic and symptom characteristics.

* Children from families lacking social support were 4.3 times as likely to have scores on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC), a brief questionnaire of child psychosocial symptoms, indicating impairment, and 2.2 times as likely to be identified by their clinician as having psychosocial problems.

* Fifty percent of children from families with low social support were identified as having a psychosocial problem. However, overall, only 21% of the children identified with a psychosocial problem had scores indicating poor family support on the Family APGAR.

* Practitioners should know that family social support and satisfaction were associated with, but distinct from, child behavioral and emotional problems. The Family APGAR was neither a sensitive nor a specific measure of child behavioral and emotional problems. It may supplement but not replace direct inquiry into child behavior.

 

The Child Behavior Study was a national study conducted in partnership between PROS and ASPN, a family practice research network. Funding was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (MH50629) and the Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCJ-177022) and the Staunton Farm Foundation. The study examined primary care management of psychosocial problems for children through data on parent-reported behaviors and clinician reported management. The study was conducted between October 1994 and June 1997 in the offices of 269 PROS practitioners and 132 family medicine practitioners from the Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network (ASPN), the Wisconsin Research Network (WReN), and the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians Research Network (MAFPRN). Subjects included children aged 4 to 15 years, presenting for single, non-emergent visits in the presence of a parent or caregiver. Data from 22,059 children (9,626 for this manuscript) were analyzed in the study. This second manuscript was published in the January 1998 issue of the Journal of Family Practice.

The citation to the manuscript follows below:

Murphy JM, Kelleher K, Pagano ME, Stulp C, Nutting PA, Jellinek MS, Gardner W, Childs GE. The Family APGAR and psychosocial problems in children: A report from ASPN & PROS. Journal of Family Practice 1998;46(1):54-64.

Manuscript writing continues.

 



Core support for the PROS network is provided by a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau

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