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Objective: Illness stigma, or perceived stigma related to a chronic health condition, is pervasive among youth with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, no studies exist examining the psychometric properties of illness stigma measures in this population. Using a modified version of the Child Stigma Scale originally developed for youth with epilepsy, the current study investigated the factor structure and validity of this adapted measure (i.e., Stigma Scale - Child; SS-C) in youth with IBD., Methods: Factor analyses were conducted to determine the most parsimonious factor structure for the adapted 8-item Stigma Scale - Child in a sample of 180 youth with IBD. Correlations were conducted to assess convergent validity, and a multiple regression was conducted to further evaluate the measure's predictive validity of child depressive symptoms., Results: The most parsimonious model for the SS-C is a one-factor solution with an error covariance between the two items assessing concealment/disclosure of IBD diagnosis., Conclusions: The SS-C is a psychometrically sound illness stigma measure in pediatric IBD that demonstrates strong convergent validity with psychosocial adjustment factors such as thwarted belongingness, illness uncertainty, and illness intrusiveness, as well as strong predictive validity with youth depressive symptoms. The SS-C is a viable option for use as a brief screener in youth with IBD across clinical and research settings., Competing Interests: Declarations of interest None., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To examine a learned helplessness conceptualization of psychological sequela in children and adolescents with juvenile rheumatic diseases (JRD) via an experimental procedure utilizing behavior-outcome contingent and noncontingent feedback., Methods: Thirty-eight children and adolescents with JRD completed measures of transient affect, self-efficacy for functional ability, and causal attributions prior to and immediately following a computerized learned helplessness induction procedure., Results: Children across contingent and noncontingent feedback conditions experienced decreased positive affect with a slightly more pronounced decline in the noncontingent condition. Noncontingent feedback resulted in poorer internalization of success for problem solving, while contingent feedback resulted in greater internalization of success for problem solving. Additionally, posttreatment control self-efficacy was significantly greater for children in the contingent condition that initially endorsed higher levels of internal task attributions., Conclusions: Children with JRD who experience behavior-outcome contingency in their environment may develop increased perceptions of control over functional ability. Furthermore, environmental noncontingency may result in poorer internalization of success, whereas contingent reinforcement may enhance cognitive appraisal mechanisms (i.e., causal attributions) associated with favorable disease outcome. Despite a modest decline in positive affect for children in the noncontingent condition, mood dysfunction is not entirely explicable within the context of noncontingent reinforcement.

Objective: To examine the contribution of perceived importance of activities of daily living (ADL) to arthritis-specific helplessness in a sample of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients over a 1-year period., Method: Forty-two individuals from an outpatient rheumatology clinic completed measures of ADL importance, helplessness, depression, pain, and disability; the physician's assistant provided objective ratings of disability., Results: Time 1 importance of ADL predicted a significant amount of variance in Time 2 arthritis helplessness after statistically controlling disease and psychological covariates. Moreover, increased perceived ADL importance predicted decreased arthritis helplessness over the 1-year period., Conclusions: Results indicate that RA patients' experience of arthritis-specific helplessness may be minimized over time when performing ADL is perceived as important. Furthermore, these findings provide preliminary evidence for one possible antecedent to increased perceptions of arthritis helplessness in individuals with RA.