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Objective Although functional abdominal pain (FAP) is one of the most common pain problems in children, there is a lack of qualitative studies on this topic. Our aim was to increase knowledge in this field by testing an innovative written narrative methodology designed to approach the experiences of children with FAP and their parents. Methods We analyzed the FAP experiences of 39 families who completed a written narrative task (children and parents separately). Some of the families (N = 20) had previously completed an online psychosocial intervention, whereas others had not, because a complementary objective was to explore possible differences between parent and child narratives, and between those who had and had not completed the intervention. Results Families wrote about abdominal pain (characteristics, triggers, pain consequences, and coping strategies), their well-being, the diagnostic process, future expectations, and the positive effects of an online psychosocial intervention. Children tended to mention pain characteristics more, whereas parents tended to write more about triggers and the diagnostic process. Conclusions A written narrative methodology was found to be a useful approach for understanding families' experiences. Results confirmed that FAP affects families at the emotional, behavioral, and social levels and that an online psychosocial intervention can help families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study was to preliminary explore the effects of DARWeb on different outcomes. A Quasi-experimental, one-group, pretest–posttest design was used. Parents and children were asked to complete questionnaires and questions (separately) about quality of life, abdominal pain severity, and satisfaction. Semi-structured interviews with families were also performed. This study focuses on 17 families. Results showed that parent's ratings of children's abdominal pain severity were significantly lower after finishing the intervention and at the 3-month follow-up, and quality of life scores had increased significantly after 3 months. From children's ratings, mean abdominal pain severity scores were significantly lower after the intervention compared to the preintervention assessment. Both parents and children were quite satisfied with the intervention. In qualitative interviews, families suggested that DARWeb helped them to give less importance to pain and to learn coping strategies. In conclusion, this study showed the potential usefulness of DARWeb for children with functional abdominal pain and for their parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective is to present a website designed to improve the quality of life of caregivers of children with cerebral palsy and show data concerning its usefulness. The website was developed in accordance with scientific literature about caregivers' burden. We organized the website around different sections (e.g. family communication, learning to relax) and social support forums. The interactive features of the site were designed to accommodate different caregivers' needs and enable them to choose different pathways according to their own individual needs. Participants were 10 caregivers who took part in a pilot study and completed a questionnaire to analyze the usefulness of the website after five months using it. Preliminary results suggested that the website was useful for participants. The most useful sections were the “peer-to-peer" and the professional forums.This study shows the potential of an online intervention for parents of children with cerebral palsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this research is to explore which factors best predict the occurrence of burden on primary caregivers of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Understanding these factors enables the identification of those caregivers at risk of having their physical and psychological health adversely affected, and the implementation of intervention strategies to reduce the negative impact of caring on parents of children with chronic medical conditions. The study sample consisted of a total of 62 caregivers (89% women) aged between 30 and 54 years (Mean = 41.98, SD = 5.64). CP affected children were aged between 1 and 17 years (Mean = 7.69, SD = 4.18) and the average degree of disability (% reflected in the medical record assessed by the Ministry of health, social services and equality of Spain) was 77.098 (scale of 100) (SD = 14.62). A burden model was constructed based on multiple linear regressions. The model included the following variables: degree of disability, depression (assessed by Beck Depression Inventory-II) and self-efficacy (measured by the Revised Scale for Caregiving Self-Efficacy). The regression model explained 40.9% of the total variance. It was found that self-efficacy had a negative linear association with burden, while the degree of disability and depression showed a positive linear association. The most important predictors of caregiver burden were degree of disability, depression and self-efficacy. For this reason, we believe that it is necessary to develop interventions to reduce depression and enhance self-efficacy in parents of children with CP as one of the primary objectives for minimizing the burden on caregivers of disabled children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the progressive increase of publicly available contents on the Internet and as information searching has become one of the most frequent online activities, informal and common searching cannot respond to the aims of scientific research. In regard to the relevant contents in a specific field of knowledge in a non-organized environment such as the Internet, the need to develop efficient procedures to guarantee a systematic search process arises. Aim: The aim of this article is to suggest a framework for developing systematic strategies for the exhaustive information seeking process on the Internet, easily adaptable to specific seeking goals. Method: Review and proposal of a framework for this decision making process based upon method and instruments selection, and equation development. Furthermore, the whole process is exemplified by the development of a systematic strategy in the field of the information about Health Psychology. Conclusions: The development of these procedures or strategies, articulated by means of the properties of exhaustiveness in the search process, replicability of the procedure and ecologic validity, is not arbitrary, but is directly related to the time spent in the carrying out of the process and the quality of the resulting information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Disposition to Cheating in Sport Questionnaire (CDED), derived from the Attitudes to Moral Decision-Making in Youth Sport Questionnaire (AMDYSQ- I, Lee, Whitehead and Ntoumanis, 2007). The sample included 110 adolescents (70 boys and 41 girls) with a mean age of 14.65 (Range: 10-19; SD = 2.09 years). The results show that the CDED, composed of the Acceptance of Cheating and Acceptance of Gamesmanship subscales, discriminates the population's variables acceptably and demonstrates an acceptable reliability and factorial validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate post-treatment efficacy of DARWeb (online psychosocial intervention for children with functional abdominal pain) using a randomized clinical trial design and combining quantitative and qualitative data., Patients and Methods: Twenty-five families with children with FAP in the experimental group (EG: accessed to DARWeb) and 36 in the control group (CG: wait-list) were compared. Children and parents completed measures of abdominal pain severity (primary outcome), quality of life, and satisfaction. Moreover, children completed measures of depression, functional disability, catastrophizing and coping strategies; parents completed measures about parental responses to their children's pain. Families also answered open questions and were interviewed., Results: A higher percentage of children in the EG achieved a significant clinical change in abdominal pain severity from the parents' perspective (28% in the EG vs 8.33% in the CG). There was a significantly greater reduction in pain frequency in the EG compared to the CG (both from the children's and parents' perspectives) from mixed repeated-measures analyses of variance (there was not a significant interaction in total scores of pain severity). A higher percentage of children in the EG improved in quality of life and depression compared to the CG (results from mixed methods repeated-measures analyses of variances were not significant). However, there were no differences for disability, pain catastrophizing or the coping strategies assessed from the children's perspective; neither from the parents' assessment of quality of life. There were significant interactions for parents' solicitousness responses and promotion of well behaviors in the expected directions. Families were quite satisfied with the intervention, and the qualitative results confirmed an improvement in pain and having learned important coping strategies., Conclusion: Our results support the efficacy of our intervention, but future studies are needed with different profiles of initial severity of the pain problem, longer follow-ups, and other conditions., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2019 Nieto et al.)