Is Temperament or Behavior a Better Predictor of Preoperative Anxiety in Children?

Abstract

The relation between parent-rated temperament and behavior and observer-rated child preoperative anxiety was examined in 61 children undergoing a day surgery procedure. Parents completed measures of child temperament and behavior prior to surgery. Child preoperative anxiety was observer-rated throughout the day surgery process. Results demonstrated that subscales of the child temperament measure had relatively lower internal consistencies. Subscales from measures of temperament and behavior showed the expected convergent validity in the assessment of inhibition and impulsive constructs, respectively. The anxious-shy subscale from the behavior measure was the only subscale that significantly predicted child anxiety at anesthetic induction (r = .24). Parent-rated measures of child behavior may be useful in identifying children at risk of developing preoperative anxiety.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Funding for this investigation was provided by IWK Health Center Research Services. At the time this research was conducted, Kristi D. Wright was supported by a Fellowship from Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Sherry H. Stewart by a Killam Research Professorship from the Dalhousie University Faculty of Science, and G. Allen Finley by a Dalhousie University Clinical Research Scholar Award.

We sincerely thank the nursing staff of the IWK Health Center Children's Day Surgery Unit; the surgeons and office staff of the Division of Otolaryngology, Urology, General Surgery, Gastroenterology, and Plastic Surgery; and the members of the Department of Pediatric Anesthesia for their cooperation and support. We also thank Michelle Coffin, Alyson Currie, Allison Eisner, Jessica Ferguson, Kathy MacDonald, and Matthew Murphy for their careful work in administration, data collection, and data coding for the investigation. Finally, we thank Dr. Donald Sharpe for providing a statistical review and consultation.

Notes

¹No randomized, controlled studies (e.g., Hickmott, Shaw, Goodyer, & Baker, 1989; Kain, Mayes, Wang, Caramico, & Hofstadter, 1998; Kain et al., 2000; Palermo, Tripi, & Burgess, 2000; Wright, Stewart, & Finley, 2010) have demonstrated parental presence to be effective at reducing child anxiety at anesthetic induction, as compared to parental absence groups (for reviews, see Chundamala, Wright, & Kemp, 2009; Piira, Sugiura, Champion, Donnelly, & Cole, 2005; Wright, Stewart, Finley, & Buffett-Jerrott, 2007; Yip, Middleton, Cyna, & Carlyle, 2009).