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184. Children's Well-being and Their Perception of Their Parents
Poster Abstracts / 56 (2015) S85eS129
RESEARCH POSTER SESSION II: MENTAL HEALTH 184. CHILDREN’S WELL-BEING AND THEIR PERCEPTION OF THEIR PARENTS Rie Toriyama, MA 1, Atsushi Nishida, PhD 2, Noriko Sugimoto, MD 1, Shinsuke Koike, MD, PhD 1, Yuko Morimoto, PhD 3, Shinya Fujikawa, MD 1, Sho Kanata, MD 1, Akiko Kanehara, MPH 1, Satoshi Usami, PhD 4, Shuntaro Ando, MD, MPH 2, Mariko Hasegawa, PhD 3, Kiyoto Kasai, MD, PhD 1. 1
The University of Tokyo; 2Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science; 3The Graduate University for Advanced Studies; 4University of Tsukuba.
Purpose: Children’s well-being is a very important issue on their healthy development. While many researchers have argued the connection between children’s well-being and their family environment such as parent-child relationships, most of them have focused on parental factors or parent-child relationship itself. When we consider parent-child relationship, incorporating children’s perspective is also important. How children perceive their parents or whether children want to be like their parents is considered to be one of the important aspects determining parentchild relationship. In this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between children’s well-being and whether they want to be like their parents in their future. Methods: In this large population-based study in Tokyo, Japan, 3065 children aged 10 (mean ¼ 10.2, SD ¼ 0.26) and their main caregivers (mostly, their mothers) completed self-report questionnaires. Children’s perception of their parents was assessed by 2 questions (4-point scales); “Do you want to be like your father/ mother in your future?” Children’s well-being was assessed using a WHO Five Well-Being Index, consisting of 5 items assessing their feelings over the last two weeks. The items are: 1) ‘I have felt cheerful and in good spirits.’; 2) ‘I have felt calm and relaxed.’; 3) ‘I have felt active and vigorous.’; 4) ‘I woke up feeling fresh and rested.’; and 5) ‘My daily life has been filled with things that interest me.’ We performed multiple linear regression analysis to examine whether children want to be like their parents is related to their well-being, controlling for children’s gender, children’s mental health, assessed by The Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ), their parents’ life satisfaction, and their family income. Results: Children who wanted to be like their father in their future had significantly higher well-being scores (b¼ .071, p <.01) and those who wanted to be like their mother in their future had significantly higher well-being scores (b¼.125, p <.001) compared to those who didn’t want to be like their parents even after controlling for confounding factors. Conclusions: Whether children want to be like their parents is significantly related to their enhanced well-being. It suggests that looking their parents as a future model and having a strong motivation to be like them is associated with children’s higher well-being. We also found that the relationship was stronger when children want to be like their mother compared to when they want to be like their father. It is possible that children as young as 10 might still have stronger connection with their mother than their father. It will be interesting to study how this effect size difference between “want to be like father” and “want to be like mother” changes as children get older and confirm their gender identity.
S95
Sources of Support: This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (23118002; Adolescent Mind & Self-Regulation) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. 185. AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER TRAIT AND BEDWETTING IN PREADOLESCENTS Sho Kanata, MD 1, Shuntaro Ando, MD, MPH 2, Shinsuke Koike, MD, PhD 3, Yuko Morimoto, PhD 4, Shinya Fujikawa, MD 1, Noriko Sugimoto, MD 1, Rie Toriyama, MA 1, Satoshi Usami, PhD 5, Atsushi Nishida, PhD 3. 1
Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo; 2Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science; 3Division for Counseling and Support, The University of Tokyo; 4School of Advanced Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies; 5Division of Psychology, University of Tsukuba. Purpose: Bedwetting is one of the most common problems in children affecting their physical and psychological health, and the prevalence was about 5-10% in 10-year-olds. However, little is known about the etiology of bedwetting. A few studies have reported that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are annoyed more frequently by bedwetting than children without ASD, but these studies employed case-controlled samples focusing on clinical cases of ASD and did not examine children with subclinical ASD trait. Further, these studies did not consider psychological and behavioral problems that might associate with both ASD and bedwetting. The present study aimed to investigate the association between ASD trait and bedwetting in population-based samples taking children’s psychological and behavioral problems into consideration simultaneously. Methods: We recruited 3,065 children (Months, M¼121.8, SD¼3.2) and their main carers (mainly mothers) from general population living in Tokyo, Japan. Data were collected by interviews and selfreport questionnaires. We asked carers whether children had current bedwetting problems, and if any, we defined them as bedwetting group in analysis. For estimating children’s ASD trait, we employed two questions examining key features of ASD (social interaction problems and stereotyped interests/behaviors): “Is your child poor at understanding other’s feelings or bad at communicating to others effectively?” and ”Is your child likely to stick to his/her interests or unlikely to change stereotyped patterns of behavior? ”. The responses were made by 6-point Likert scale (0: Not at all, 1: Rarely, 2: Less likely, 3: Sometimes, 4: Often 5: Always), and the scores were summed up. Carers also reported emotional symptoms and hyperactivity problems of children using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Children’s age, gender, and IQ were included as potential confounding factors. We examined whether ASD trait would be related to bedwetting by multiple linear regression analysis. Results: Bedwetting was more prevalent in boys than girls (Girls; 4.1%, Boys; 13.9%, p<.001). ASD trait was related to increased bedwetting after adjusting for children’s age, gender, and IQ (b¼.074 [95% C.I. .037 w .111], p<.001). In gender specific analysis, the association between ASD trait and bedwetting remained significant only in girls even after adjusting for emotional symptoms and hyperactivity problems as well as demographic characteristics (Girls; b¼.078 [95% C.I. .017 w .140], p¼.011, Boys; b¼.0046 [95% C.I. -.054 w .064], p¼.87). On the other hand, in the same analysis, there showed significant association between
RESEARCH POSTER SESSION II: MENTAL HEALTH 184. CHILDREN’S WELL-BEING AND THEIR PERCEPTION OF THEIR PARENTS Rie Toriyama, MA 1, Atsushi Nishida, PhD 2, Noriko Sugimoto, MD 1, Shinsuke Koike, MD, PhD 1, Yuko Morimoto, PhD 3, Shinya Fujikawa, MD 1, Sho Kanata, MD 1, Akiko Kanehara, MPH 1, Satoshi Usami, PhD 4, Shuntaro Ando, MD, MPH 2, Mariko Hasegawa, PhD 3, Kiyoto Kasai, MD, PhD 1. 1
The University of Tokyo; 2Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science; 3The Graduate University for Advanced Studies; 4University of Tsukuba.
Purpose: Children’s well-being is a very important issue on their healthy development. While many researchers have argued the connection between children’s well-being and their family environment such as parent-child relationships, most of them have focused on parental factors or parent-child relationship itself. When we consider parent-child relationship, incorporating children’s perspective is also important. How children perceive their parents or whether children want to be like their parents is considered to be one of the important aspects determining parentchild relationship. In this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between children’s well-being and whether they want to be like their parents in their future. Methods: In this large population-based study in Tokyo, Japan, 3065 children aged 10 (mean ¼ 10.2, SD ¼ 0.26) and their main caregivers (mostly, their mothers) completed self-report questionnaires. Children’s perception of their parents was assessed by 2 questions (4-point scales); “Do you want to be like your father/ mother in your future?” Children’s well-being was assessed using a WHO Five Well-Being Index, consisting of 5 items assessing their feelings over the last two weeks. The items are: 1) ‘I have felt cheerful and in good spirits.’; 2) ‘I have felt calm and relaxed.’; 3) ‘I have felt active and vigorous.’; 4) ‘I woke up feeling fresh and rested.’; and 5) ‘My daily life has been filled with things that interest me.’ We performed multiple linear regression analysis to examine whether children want to be like their parents is related to their well-being, controlling for children’s gender, children’s mental health, assessed by The Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ), their parents’ life satisfaction, and their family income. Results: Children who wanted to be like their father in their future had significantly higher well-being scores (b¼ .071, p <.01) and those who wanted to be like their mother in their future had significantly higher well-being scores (b¼.125, p <.001) compared to those who didn’t want to be like their parents even after controlling for confounding factors. Conclusions: Whether children want to be like their parents is significantly related to their enhanced well-being. It suggests that looking their parents as a future model and having a strong motivation to be like them is associated with children’s higher well-being. We also found that the relationship was stronger when children want to be like their mother compared to when they want to be like their father. It is possible that children as young as 10 might still have stronger connection with their mother than their father. It will be interesting to study how this effect size difference between “want to be like father” and “want to be like mother” changes as children get older and confirm their gender identity.
S95
Sources of Support: This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (23118002; Adolescent Mind & Self-Regulation) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. 185. AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER TRAIT AND BEDWETTING IN PREADOLESCENTS Sho Kanata, MD 1, Shuntaro Ando, MD, MPH 2, Shinsuke Koike, MD, PhD 3, Yuko Morimoto, PhD 4, Shinya Fujikawa, MD 1, Noriko Sugimoto, MD 1, Rie Toriyama, MA 1, Satoshi Usami, PhD 5, Atsushi Nishida, PhD 3. 1
Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo; 2Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science; 3Division for Counseling and Support, The University of Tokyo; 4School of Advanced Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies; 5Division of Psychology, University of Tsukuba. Purpose: Bedwetting is one of the most common problems in children affecting their physical and psychological health, and the prevalence was about 5-10% in 10-year-olds. However, little is known about the etiology of bedwetting. A few studies have reported that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are annoyed more frequently by bedwetting than children without ASD, but these studies employed case-controlled samples focusing on clinical cases of ASD and did not examine children with subclinical ASD trait. Further, these studies did not consider psychological and behavioral problems that might associate with both ASD and bedwetting. The present study aimed to investigate the association between ASD trait and bedwetting in population-based samples taking children’s psychological and behavioral problems into consideration simultaneously. Methods: We recruited 3,065 children (Months, M¼121.8, SD¼3.2) and their main carers (mainly mothers) from general population living in Tokyo, Japan. Data were collected by interviews and selfreport questionnaires. We asked carers whether children had current bedwetting problems, and if any, we defined them as bedwetting group in analysis. For estimating children’s ASD trait, we employed two questions examining key features of ASD (social interaction problems and stereotyped interests/behaviors): “Is your child poor at understanding other’s feelings or bad at communicating to others effectively?” and ”Is your child likely to stick to his/her interests or unlikely to change stereotyped patterns of behavior? ”. The responses were made by 6-point Likert scale (0: Not at all, 1: Rarely, 2: Less likely, 3: Sometimes, 4: Often 5: Always), and the scores were summed up. Carers also reported emotional symptoms and hyperactivity problems of children using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Children’s age, gender, and IQ were included as potential confounding factors. We examined whether ASD trait would be related to bedwetting by multiple linear regression analysis. Results: Bedwetting was more prevalent in boys than girls (Girls; 4.1%, Boys; 13.9%, p<.001). ASD trait was related to increased bedwetting after adjusting for children’s age, gender, and IQ (b¼.074 [95% C.I. .037 w .111], p<.001). In gender specific analysis, the association between ASD trait and bedwetting remained significant only in girls even after adjusting for emotional symptoms and hyperactivity problems as well as demographic characteristics (Girls; b¼.078 [95% C.I. .017 w .140], p¼.011, Boys; b¼.0046 [95% C.I. -.054 w .064], p¼.87). On the other hand, in the same analysis, there showed significant association between