ABSTRACT

Self-awareness has been found to vary across different functional domains for adults with acquired brain injury (ABI); however, domain-specific self-awareness is yet to be investigated following paediatric ABI. This study aimed to validate the Paediatric Awareness Questionnaire (PAQ) as a multi-domain measure of self-awareness and to investigate domain-specific self-awareness in children with ABI. One hundred and ninety-seven children and adolescents (8–16 years, M = 12.44, SD = 2.62) with mixed causes of ABI (70% with traumatic brain injury) and their parents (n = 197) were recruited through consecutive rehabilitation appointments and completed the PAQ. The 37 items of the parent version of the PAQ were subjected to a principal component analysis with varimax rotation. A five-component solution (29 items) explained 64% of the variance in the PAQ items. Components revealed five domains of self-awareness: socio-emotional functioning, activities of daily living (ADLs), cognition, physical functioning, and communication. Internal consistency of the components ranged from acceptable to excellent (α = .70–.95). The analysis identified that children had poorer self-awareness of cognitive functioning than socio-emotional functioning, ADLs, and communication skills. Overall, the findings identify five components (i.e., functional domains) of self-awareness and provide some support that self-awareness varies across domains following paediatric ABI.

摘要

已发现获得性脑损伤 (ABI) 成人的自我意识在不同功能领域有所不同；然而，在儿科 ABI 之后，特定领域的自我意识仍有待调查。本研究旨在验证儿科意识问卷 (PAQ) 作为自我意识的多领域测量，并调查 ABI 儿童特定领域的自我意识。197名混合原因导致 ABI 的儿童和青少年（8-16 岁，M  = 12.44，SD  = 2.62）（70% 有外伤性脑损伤）及其父母（n = 197) 通过连续的康复预约招募并完成了 PAQ。PAQ 的父版本的 37 个项目进行了方差最大旋转的主成分分析。五分量解决方案（29 个项目）解释了 PAQ 项目中 64% 的差异。成分揭示了自我意识的五个领域：社会情感功能、日常生活活动 (ADL)、认知、身体功能和交流。组件的内部一致性范围从可接受到优秀 (α = .70–.95)。分析发现，与社会情感功能、ADL 和沟通技巧相比，儿童对认知功能的自我意识较差。总体而言，研究结果确定了五个组成部分（即，