Article

The Paediatric Care and Needs Scale (PCANS) is a newly developed scale that
assesses support needs following childhood acquired brain injury (ABI). It yields
three measures of support: overall, extent and intensity.
The developmental
process of the PCANS is described and concurrent and construct validity examined.
METHOD: In the validation study, 32 parents/caregivers of children with ABI aged
5-18 years completed the PCANS and other validating measures: Vineland Adaptive
Behavior Scales (VABS), Functional Independence Measure for Children (Wee-FIM)
and King's Outcome Scale of Childhood Head Injury (KOSCHI). VABS and Wee-FIM
sub-scales examining similar and dissimilar domains to the PCANS were used to
investigate convergent and divergent validity, respectively. Discriminant
validity analysis used sub-groups dichotomized by VABS and KOSCHI data. RESULTS:
Statistically significant correlation coefficients of moderate-to-strong
magnitude were found between the PCANS support intensity score and most of the
VABS, Wee-FIM and KOSCHI variables (r(s) = -0.46 to r(s) = -0.77, p < 0.01). Some
evidence for convergent and divergent validity was also found. Correlation
coefficients between similar domains of the PCANS and other scales were
moderately high (e.g. VABS socialization vs PCANS psychosocial items, r(s) =
-0.64, p < 0.01). Conversely, correlation coefficients between dissimilar domains
were low (e.g. Wee-FIM self-care vs PCANS psychosocial items, r(s) = -0.29). In
terms of discriminant group differences, PCANS support extent and intensity
scores were able to distinguish between sub-groups dichotomized by VABS and
KOSCHI scores. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide preliminary evidence for the
validity of the PCANS for assessing support needs after paediatric ABI.

Langue : ANGLAIS