Parenting Stress and Emotional/Behavioral Problems in Adolescents with Primary Headache.

Francesca Felicia Operto,Francesco Craig,Roberta Mazza,Antonia Peschechera,Lucia Margari,Paola Alessandra Lecce

doi:10.3389/fneur.2017.00749

Abstract

Primary headache is a frequent and disabling disorder, common among children and adolescents, and it is a painful syndrome often accompanied by functional impairment and associated with emotional and behavior problems. The aim of this study was to investigate parenting stress and emotional/behavioral problems in adolescents affected by primary headache compared with healthy adolescents. The study population consisted of 35 adolescents and a control group of 23 healthy subjects. The assessment included the administration of clinical standardized scales such as Parent Stress Index-Short Form, Pediatric Migraine Disability Assessment Score Questionnaire, and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Headache group and control group did not differ in terms of parenting stress (p = 0.29). On the contrary, headache group showed more internalizing problems (p = 0.023), affective problems (p = 0.01), anxious (p = 0.001), and somatic complaints (p < 0.001) compared with control group. In addition, we found a significant correlation between PSI domains and specific CBCL subscales in the headache group. The findings emphasize the need for expanded intervention in the clinical treatment of pediatric headache, a treatment that may also include the family members. Further research is needed.

Highlights

Headache is the most frequent neurological symptom and commonest manifestation of pain in childhood, representing one of the most frequent reasons for child neuropsychiatric consultation [1]
There are only two reports concerning the impact of primary headache on parenting stress: Esposito et al [4] reported that parents of children with headache have higher stress levels on all of the three dimensions of PSI compared with parents of a control group, whereas Barone et al showed no difference between headache group and control group for parenting stress [3]
Investigating parenting stress and emotional/behavioral problems in adolescents affected by primary headache compared with healthy adolescents was the aim of this study

Summary

Introduction

Headache is the most frequent neurological symptom and commonest manifestation of pain in childhood, representing one of the most frequent reasons for child neuropsychiatric consultation [1]. There are only two reports concerning the impact of primary headache on parenting stress: Esposito et al [4] reported that parents of children with headache have higher stress levels on all of the three dimensions of PSI compared with parents of a control group, whereas Barone et al showed no difference between headache group and control group for parenting stress [3]. Parents of children affected by physical and psychiatric chronic illness seem to have higher stress levels. Gatta et al [6] showed higher stress levels in parents of children affected by psychiatric disease compared with parents of a control group and described an increase of the Parenting Stress Index associated with the severity of the disease

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