Household Task Participation of Children With and Without Physical Disability

Young Children's Housework Participation in Taiwan: Serial Multiple Mediations

The purpose of this study was to investigate not only the participating in housework but also the parents' attitude and child's preference, in relation to children's health and housework participation in Taiwan. We collected data from the Young Children's Housework Participation Questionnaire on "Google forms". A total of 755 parents with preschool children living in Keelung City, Taipei City, and New Taipei City participated through the snowball method. The results showed that children's health not only directly affected their housework performance but also indirectly influenced their housework participation through the serial multiple mediation of parents' attitude and the child's housework preference. Therefore, this study confirms that, when analyzing the factors of children's housework participation, it is necessary to have a clearer understanding of the relationship between variables to further construct a more complete model framework that affects children's housework participation. Additionally, it is very important for parenting education to improve parents' attitude towards the importance of children's housework and encourage children's preference for housework.

Exploring participation in family activities among Serbian children with cerebral palsy and children with typical development: diversity, frequency, children's presence, and engagement

PURPOSE

This study aimed to characterize the participation in family activities in two groups of children: children with cerebral palsy (CP group) and children with typical development (TD group), with regard to diversity, frequency, children's presence, and engagement.

METHOD

The convenience sample of this descriptive and comparative cross-sectional study conducted in Serbia included 48 children with CP and 74 children with TD, aged 7-12 years. Parents completed the Child Participation in Family Activities (Child-PFA) questionnaire. Mann-Whitney U test was used for data analysing.

RESULTS

Children with CP experienced less diverse and less frequent family activities compared to children with TD, with more pronounced differences in the diversity of family activities than in their frequency. In the occurring family activities, children with CP were present in a comparable proportion as children with TD. Once in an activity, children with CP were less engaged.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results confirmed that children with CP do not have the same opportunities to participate and be engaged in everyday family life activities as children with TD. Greater efforts are needed to address these differences and facilitate access to and engagement of children with CP in a variety of family activities.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONIn comparison to children with typical development, family activities are less diverse and less frequent in families of children with cerebral palsy, and children are less engaged, specifically when activities include family's or children's social network.In line with current practice, this study confirms the importance of addressing opportunities for children with cerebral palsy to be often and more engaged in everyday family life activities.Professionals should support a family context that optimizes the engagement of children with cerebral palsy in activities with other family members, thus providing them everyday natural learning opportunities.

Preparation for Adulthood: Shifting Responsibility for Management of Daily Tasks From Parents to Their Children

Importance: Limited research has described the timing of acquisition of the broad range of skills required for the transition to adulthood.

Objective: To describe the timing of the shift of responsibility for daily tasks from parent to child.

Design: This study used an existing data set of parent responses to 49 items in the Responsibility domain of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory Computer Adaptive Tests.

Participants: A U.S. nationally representative sample of 2,205 typically developing children and youth ages 0 to 20 yr.

Outcomes and Measures: Descriptive analyses focused on two ages: (1) starting age (when >50% of parents reported their child was taking at least some responsibility for a task) and (2) full responsibility age (when >50% of parents reported their child was taking full responsibility for the task).

Results: The process of shifting responsibility for daily life tasks from parent to child typically occurred over a long period. Many task items had an interval of 5 yr from starting age to full responsibility age; the longest interval was 15 yr. Youth began assuming responsibility for more complex tasks and tasks that involved more risk at ages 10 to 15.

Conclusions and Relevance: Results can serve as a reference for the timing of the transition to greater self-management of daily life tasks across childhood and adolescence. Timing of responsibility shifts may reflect a combination of development of underlying capacities and social transitions. Executive functioning may be especially relevant for management of the more complex tasks required in daily life in adulthood.

What This Article Adds: The transfer of responsibility for managing tasks of daily life from parents to children often extends over a period of many years. Clinicians may find the results helpful when discussing the future with parents of young people with disabilities and other chronic conditions and the tasks that their children must learn to manage for independent living as an adult.

The occupational repertoires of children with mobility difficulties: The child’s perspective

Introduction

Children with mobility difficulties are thought to share similar participation repertoires due to the impact of their physical impairments. However, with these children, as with all others, individual differences and contexts should mediate occupational repertoires and experiences, resulting in participation differences, at least in part. This study aimed to explore the occupational repertoires of children with mobility difficulties and their view of their occupational participation.

Methods

Five children with mobility difficulties were assessed using the paediatric activity card sort, to establish their occupational repertoires. Semi-structured interviews were used to understand the children’s occupational participation.

Findings

Our findings suggest that children with mobility issues are more likely to participate in quiet occupations, but not exclusively. The children defined participation in their own way.

Conclusion

The knowledge about how children with mobility difficulties understand participation in occupation can help occupational therapists to establish goals with their clients and personalise interventions.

Reliability and validity of the Children Participation Assessment Scale in Activities Outside of School-Parent version for children with physical disabilities

INTRODUCTION

Occupational therapy supports individuals to participate in meaningful activities. Participation in activities should be assessed with appropriate tools. The aim of the present study was to establish the reliability and validity of the Children Participation Assessment Scale in Activities Outside of School-Parent version (CPAS-P) for children with physical disabilities.

METHODS

The participants were 304 parents of 6- to 12-year-old children with physical disabilities. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal consistency, convergent validity of the CPAS-P with the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS), and test-retest reliability were measured.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable values for all indices of fit, namely goodness of fit index (GFI), adjusted GFI, normal fix index, comparative fit index, incremental fit index (i.e., greater than 0.90), and the value of root mean square error of approximation was 0.07, which was acceptable. High Cronbach's alpha coefficients (above 0.9) were reported for the total score of each scale (diversity = 0.94, frequency = 0.94, with whom = 0.92, enjoyment = 0.95, and parent satisfaction = 0.95). The convergent validity of the CPAS-P with the VABS was moderate to good and the test-retest reliability (ICC) for the total scores ranged from 0.90 to 0.96.

CONCLUSION

The CPAS-P had good psychometric properties for parents reporting the activities of their 6- to 12-year-old children with physical disabilities and can be utilized in clinical practice.

Parent perspectives on home participation of high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder compared with a matched group of children without autism spectrum disorder

Few studies have focused on home participation of high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder. We employed a mixed-methods design to explore and compare parent perspectives on (1) participation of children with and without autism spectrum disorder in activities at home, (2) the environmental features and resources that affect these children’s home participation and (3) the strategies parents use to help their children participate at home. The Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth (PEM-CY) was used to gather online survey and qualitative data from parents of 99 high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder and 241 children without autism spectrum disorder. Independent sample t-tests and χ2 tests were used to explore differences between groups, and Cohen’s d was calculated to examine effect sizes. Differences were obtained on all Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth dimensions but particularly when comparing parents’ satisfaction and perceived environmental barriers to their children’s participation. The qualitative analyses revealed that parents in both groups used similar strategies to facilitate their children’s participation at home, although parents of children with autism spectrum disorder made use of more distinct modifications. Our results highlight the importance of environmental aspects and point to how practitioners can support families in their efforts to promote their child’s participation at home.

Predictive Factors of Household Task Participation in Brazilian Children and Adolescents

Home environment is an important setting for child participation. This study investigated the participation of Brazilian children and adolescents in household self-care (SC) and family-care (FC) tasks. Interviews were conducted with 109 caregivers of children and adolescents ages 6 to 14 years residing in Belo Horizonte (Brazil). Multiple regression models revealed that a greater number of FC tasks were performed by children and adolescents (R2 = .23) from families who did not have a housekeeper and those in which the mothers did not work outside of the home; children and adolescents from this subgroup also received less assistance from the caregivers (R2 = .21) and showed greater independence in task performance (R2 = .20). On average, Brazilian children and adolescents participate in about half of the SC and 25% the FC household tasks. Factors related to family structure and child's age were associated with task performance, caregiver assistance, and child and adolescent independence in household tasks.

Internal Structure of the Children Helping Out: Responsibilities, Expectations, and Supports (CHORES) Measure

The purpose of this study was to examine the internal structure of the Children Helping Out: Responsibilities, Expectations, and Supports (CHORES), an assessment of household task participation for children. Rasch analysis was used to examine patterns of item response and scale structure with data collected from caregivers of 132 children and youth ages 6–14 yr with and without disabling conditions. Internal consistency was strong for the total measure and the subscales. The items in both subscales fit the measurement model, and the item difficulty order matched the expected pattern from harder to easier household task performance and degree of caregiver assistance. The sample distribution in the hierarchical continuum showed that younger participants and those with physical disabilities tended to score lower. Some inconsistencies in rating scale use suggest a need for further clarification of the scoring criteria for measurement coherence.

Household task participation of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and typical development

This cross-sectional study compared patterns of household task participation (e.g., performance, assistance and independence) of youth with cerebral palsy (CP), Down syndrome (DS) and typical development (TD). Parents of 75 children and adolescents were interviewed to report on their youths' active engagement in daily self-care and family-care tasks, using the children helping out: responsibilities, expectations and supports (CHORES) questionnaire. Groups were equivalent in age (mean=9.3 years; SD=2.2 years), sex (male=39; female=36), respondent education, presence of maid, and number of siblings at home, but differed on child cognitive function and family socioeconomic status, with the DS and the CP groups scoring lower than the TD group but not different from each other. ANOVA revealed group differences on CHORES performance of self-care tasks (p=0.004), on total participation score (p=0.04) and on assistance scores (p<0.02). Post hoc comparisons showed that TD group scored higher than CP and DS groups on performance and assistance in self-care tasks and total assistance; TD and CP groups were similar on total performance and assistance in family-care tasks. The groups also differed on independence indices; the TD index was greater than the CP and DS, and the CP index was greater than the DS. Parents from the three groups did not differ on ratings of importance regarding their children's household participation (p=0.416). In spite of observed differences, children and adolescents with CP and DS are actively engaged in daily self-care and family-care tasks; their participation at home is not prevented by the presence of their disabilities.

State of the Journal, 2013

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) has developed into a solid research journal, increasingly disseminating evidence-based research able to inform practice.