Assessment of Parenting Attitudes by Children and Adolescents with Migraine

Abstract

Purpose We aimed to investigate the parenting attitudes reported by patients and their relationships with the characteristics of headaches in children and adolescents with migraine.

Methods We conducted a retrospective review of medical records of children and adolescents with migrainous headaches (n=115; 59.1% female; mean age, 11.89±2.00 years). Children evaluated parental attitudes using the Parenting Attitude Test-Youth (PAT-Y), which comprises eight subscales and four newly devised secondary subscales. Headache severity was calculated by the visual analog scale (VAS), monthly frequency (MF), and VAS×MF/4 (VF). The scores of PAT-Y subscales and the correlations between PAT-Y scores and headache severity were analyzed by age group and sex. Scores for children’s depression inventory, childhood behavior checklists, and an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder scale were also analyzed.

Results In the elementary school age group, VAS was weakly negatively correlated with the “achievement press” (r=-0.28, P<0.05) and “high expectation” (r=-0.25, P<0.05) attitudes, and VF was weakly negatively correlated with “achievement press” (r=-0.32, P<0.05), “punishment” (r=-0.27, P<0.05), and “high expectation” (r=-0.29, P<0.05). In the middle-school age group, MF and VF were moderately positively correlated with the “achievement press” attitude (r=0.48, P<0.01 and r=0.48, P<0.01, respectively), VF was weakly positively correlated with the “neglectful” attitude(r=0.31, P<0.05), and MF was weakly positively correlated with scores for depression (r=0.29, P<0.05) and internalized problems (r=0.31, P<0.05).

Conclusion Parenting attitudes perceived by children and adolescents with migrainous headaches varied by age, and some parenting attitudes were related to headache severity. Education on age-appropriate parenting attitudes may help cope with migrainous headaches.