Treatment Beliefs of Children and Adolescents With Chronic Diseases: Development of the Rehabilitation Treatment Beliefs Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents

The concept of treatment beliefs in children and adolescents with chronic health conditions: a scoping review

Children and adolescents with chronic health conditions are faced with ongoing challenges, making self-regulation crucial. As children grow up, they gradually develop differentiated beliefs about illness and treatment. While research indicates treatment beliefs as relevant factor on outcomes like adherence, the specific contents and dimensions of children's and adolescents' treatment beliefs remained unclear. This scoping review therefore aimed at the identification of treatment beliefs dimensions in children and adolescents with chronic health conditions, the underlying theoretical frameworks, and methodological operationalisation. Published literature was examined by applying systematic searches in electronic databases (Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL) and comprehensive selection criteria, resulting in 49 included studies. The predominant treatment beliefs dimensions were necessity, concerns, perceived benefits and costs/barriers, and expectations. The latter can be differentiated into outcome, social, process, and structural expectations, and expectations of one's own role in the treatment process. In addition, dimensions that cover emotions and reasons for treatment were identified. The results are related to the methods and theoretical models applied, which were often adapted from adult research. However, additional and possibly more child-specific dimensions such as social expectations and emotions were found. This scoping review indicates several research gaps and discusses practical implications.

The rehabilitation treatment beliefs questionnaire-revised: assessing adolescents' treatment beliefs

OBJECTIVE

While there are several studies on children's and adolescents' beliefs about illness and medication treatment, there is limited research on their treatment beliefs in the context of rehabilitation. The Rehabilitation Treatment Beliefs Questionnaire (RTBQ) was the first instrument available to assess pediatric patients' rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs. However, the RTBQ had some limitations that we aimed to address in this study: We revised the content of the RTBQ to include previously unaddressed dimensions of rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs, and we thoroughly tested its psychometric properties based on a sizeable, multicenter sample of adolescents with different chronic diseases.

METHODS

Across 11 pediatric rehabilitation clinics throughout Germany, eligible patients aged 12-18 years with any chronic physical or mental health condition were invited to participate in an online survey. Psychometric evaluation included item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, internal consistency and construct validity.

RESULTS

The sample comprised N = 294 adolescents (M = 14.2 years) with various chronic conditions. Psychometric testing demonstrated a coherent factor structure with 6 interpretable scales covering process and outcome expectations, expectations of one's own role in the treatment process, structural expectations, concerns, and emotions, the latter three representing previously unaddressed dimensions of rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs. Internal consistency was acceptable to good. Construct validity analyses showed mostly hypotheses-consistent correlations with related constructs.

CONCLUSIONS

The revised RTBQ provides a psychometrically well-tested, adolescent-specific, and disease-generic instrument that captures multiple dimensions of rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs. Practical implications include identifying adolescents' beliefs about rehabilitation treatment in order to actively involve them in their illness management.