Demographic and Injury-Related Moderators of Memory and Achievement Outcome in Pediatric TBI

Abstract

Critical factors affecting traumatic brain injury (TBI) outcome in children and adolescents are explored with an emphasis on an examination of age at injury as a predictor of memory functioning. Age at injury and other injury-related and demographic predictors (i.e., severity, time postinjury, gender, and socioeconomic status [SES]) of memory and achievement outcome were examined in 65 children and adolescents post-TBI compared to 65 age-matched noninjured controls. Although robust findings have been found for age at injury as a general predictor of outcome, age was not found to be a significant predictor of memory functioning following pediatric TBI. Structural equation modeling suggests that the most parsimonious model of post-TBI outcome contains two causally related latent variables: one defined by gender, SES, injury severity, and age at injury, and one defined by general cognitive functioning.

Key words:

• achievement
• age
• memory
• outcome
• structural equation modeling
• traumatic brain injury

Notes

TOMAL VMI = Verbal Memory Index; NMI = Nonverbal Memory Index; CMI = Composite Memory Index; DRI = Delayed Recall Index.

*p < .05, as examined by post hoc Tukey's HSD procedure.

^a Reliably different from control group.

^b Reliably different from mild brain injury group.

^c Reliably different from moderate brain injury group.

VMI = Verbal Memory Index; NMI = Nonverbal Memory Index; CMI = Composite Memory Index; DRI = Delayed Recall Index; Read = WRAT-3 Reading; Spell = WRAT-3 Spelling; Arith = WRAT-3 Arithmetic; PPVT = Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised.

^a Control variables included parental level of education as estimate of socioeconomic status and gender.

*p < .05. **p < .01.