Children’s perceptions of their cerebral palsy and their impact on life satisfaction

Abstract

Purpose: To assess an individual child’s cognitive and emotional perceptions of their cerebral palsy (CP) and how these are associated with their reported life satisfaction and their functional walking ability.Method: Convenience sample of 48 children with cerebral palsy, GMFCS (Gross Motor Function Classification System) I-IV, mean age of 12.2 ± 2.5 years was recruited from tertiary level out-patient clinics. All children completed the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire-Cerebral Palsy version (BIPQ–CP), Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) and 1- and 6-min walk tests.Results: Children with CP reported levels of global life satisfaction (mean score 31.4/42) equivalent to previous studies of typically developing children. Higher total SLSS scores were associated with lower concern about CP (rho = −0.61, p < 0.001), lower emotional impact (rho = −0.58, p < 0.001), fewer perceived consequences (rho = −0.53, p < 0.001) and perceptions of higher levels of personal control (rho = 0.40, p = 0.01). Multiple regression models using BIPQ-CP constructs found that a combination of lower level of concern and fewer perceived consequences predicted 46% of the variance in SLSS score (p < 0.001). GMFCS levels, walk distance and age were not significant predictors of life satisfaction. Conclusions: Life satisfaction in this group of children was strongly associated with a child’s perceptions of their CP but was not associated with functional walking ability. Although the cross-sectional nature of the study precludes assumptions of causality, understanding children’s cognitive and emotional beliefs about their cerebral palsy would seem to be an important adjunct to clinical management.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Children with cerebral palsy as young as eight years can self-report cognitive and emotional beliefs about their condition.

• The reported degree of concern about cerebral palsy is the strongest predictor of the child’s reported level of life satisfaction.

• Those children with cerebral palsy who do report high levels of concern about their condition also report that they have feelings of reduced personal control and are more affected emotionally, suggesting possible targets for intervention.

Keywords::

• Cerebral palsy
• life satisfaction
• perceptions
• children

Declaration of Interest: The authors declared no conflict of interest.