Social problem solving in children with acquired brain injuries

Objectives: To assess the performance of children with acquired brain injur ies (ABIs) on a measure of social problem serving and to examine the relati onships between participant characteristics and performance on the Social K nowledge Interview (SKI) and between parent-reported child behavior and per formance on the SKI. Design: Between-group comparisons using correlational analyses, matched pairs t-tests, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Parti cipants: Thirty-one children 6-12 years old with ABI and 31 control partici pants, matched on age and sex. Main outcome measure: The SKI, a measure of social problem-solving skills. Results: Using matched pairs t-tests and ANC OVA, groups were compared on several SKI measures, including the number of unique responses generated for each problem scenario, the quality of those responses, and the ability to select the best response from a set of altern atives. When equated for socioeconomic status (SES), ABI and control partic ipants performed similarly on the SKI; however a trend for children with AB I to generate more assertive responses was observed. Performance on the SKI was positively correlated with IQ and related to parent-reported adaptive behavior. In children with ABI, performance was also related to primary les ion location and treatment regimen. Conclusions: Children with ABI are as c apable of judging the appropriateness of behavior and generating response o ptions on an analog measure of social problem solving as were their typical ly developing peers. However, those individual children with ABI who are mo re likely to have social problems may be identified by the qualitative aspe cts of their responses on analog tasks. These findings have implications fo r the identification of children with social skills deficits following ABI and for the development of effective rehabilitation strategies.