Citation

Pessar LF, Coad ML, Linn RT, Willer BS. Brain Inj. 1993; 7(3): 231-240.

Affiliation

Faculty of the Research and Training Center on Community Integration of Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury, University at Buffalo, NY.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8508179

Abstract

Little is known about the effects of a parent's brain injury and subsequent disabilities on the children in the family. This study examines 24 families in which one parent is brain injured. In each family the children were born before the parent's injury and still lived at home at the time of interview. Reports of the uninjured parent indicate that most of the children experienced some degree of negative behavioural change after the parent's injury. In 10 of the families, significant and problematic changes occurred. Types of problems included poor relationship with the injured parent, acting-out behaviour and emotional problems. Correlates of poor outcomes for the children were: (1) injured parent's gender, (2) compromised parenting performance of the injured parent, (3) compromised parenting performance of the uninjured parent and (4) depression in the uninjured parent. This study points to the importance of recognizing traumatic brain injury as a major family stressor.

Language: en