Psychosocial functioning of pediatric renal and liver transplant recipients.

The current study examined child- and parent-reported child psychosocial functioning in a large sample of children who received solid organ transplantation. Participants included 64 children who received kidney or liver transplantation and 64 parents who completed a standardized measure of children's psychosocial functioning (BASC; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992). Although post-transplant children reported significantly fewer psychosocial difficulties than the normative average, parents reported that children had some psychosocial difficulties, particularly internalizing problems.

The relationship of hope and illness-related uncertainty to emotional adjustment and adherence among pediatric renal and liver transplant recipients.

Objective: To examine, using partial least squares (PLS) modeling, the associations among hope, illness-related uncertainty, anxiety, depression, and adherence in a sample of children with renal and liver transplantations.

Methods: Seventy pediatric renal and liver transplant recipients and their caregivers participated in a 3-month study which involved completing questionnaires and monitoring adherence via self-report and electronic monitoring (MEMS caps). A PLS estimation procedure was used to examine the associations among constructs in the theoretical model.

Maternal DHA and the development of attention in infancy and toddlerhood.

Infants were followed longitudinally to document the relationship between docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels and the development of attention. Erythrocyte (red-blood cell; RBC) phospholipid DHA (percentage of total fatty acids) was measured from infants and mothers at delivery. Infants were assessed in infant-control habituation at 4, 6, and 8 months augmented with psychophysiological measures, and on free-play attention and distractibility paradigms at 12 and 18 months.

Longitudinal correlates of depressive symptoms among urban African American children: II. Extension of findings across 3 years.

We examined the association between childhood self-reported depressive symptoms and 2 areas of child psychosocial functioning: social and cognitive competence. Urban African American children, ages 6 to 11 and their mothers (N = 177) were interviewed at 2 assessments separated by 3 years. As a test of the relations among depressive symptoms and subsequent psychosocial functioning, independent hierarchical regression analyses were performed, with mother-reported social and cognitive competence and grades at the latter assessment as dependent variables.