THE FAMILY APGAR AND PSYCHOSOCIAL PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN - A REPORT FROM ASPN AND PROS

BACKGROUND. Our study examined whether the lack of social support as m easured by the Family APGAR was related to parents' and physicians' id entification of child psychosocial problems and sociodemographic and s ymptom characteristics of the children screened. METHODS. The parents of 9626 children, ages 4 to 15 years, seen for outpatient medical visi ts participated in this national study. Parents completed the Family A PGAR and the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC), a measure of psychosoc ial dysfunction. Physicians rated the presence of a new or recurrent p sychosocial problem in the child. RESULTS. Children from families with a lack of social support were 4.3 times as likely to receive scores i ndicating impairment on the PSC and 2.2 times as likely to be identifi ed as having psychosocial problems by physician report. Families with low social support were significantly more likely to report low parent al educational achievement, single parent status, and a history of men tal health services for the child. Fifty percent of children from fami lies with low social support were identified as having a psychosocial problem by either the PSC or physician rating, or both; however, only 21% of the children identified with psychosocial impairment by these t wo measures had scores indicating poor family functioning on the Famil y APGAR. CONCLUSIONS. A lack of family social support is associated wi th child psychosocial dysfunction as assessed by two different measure s. However, the Family APGAR was not a sensitive measure of child psyc hosocial problems, and thus it supplements, but does not replace, info rmation concerning the child's overall psychosocial functioning.