Reporter Volume 25, No.29 June 13, 1994

By  LOIS BAKER
News Bureau Staff
When a parent sustains a brain injury, it can affect a child's
behavior, as well as cause problems in the relationship between a
child and the brain-injured parent, a UB study has shown.
	UB researchers investigating how 52 children in 24 families
responded to a brain-injured parent found that most of the children
experienced some negative behavior changes after the parent's injury,
and that a significant breakdown in the relationship between the
children and the injured parent occurred in 40 percent of the
families. 
	Results showed that parenting performance changed for the
worse in most families, and that these changes were correlated with
increased acting out, and relationship and emotional problems in the
children.
 	A critical factor in the children's response to the situation
appeared to be depression in the uninjured parent. Two-thirds of the
noninjured parents experienced depression.
	Linda F. Pessar, UB clinical associate professor of psychiatry
and lead researcher on the study, said that while previous studies
have concluded that psychological, cognitive and behavioral changes in
an individual with brain injury may produce enduring stress for the
family as a whole, the question of how children in particular respond
has received little research attention.
	Her study investigated the nature and frequency of the
children's psychological and behavioral problems and both parents'
behavior and attitudes associated with those problems.
	Pessar and colleagues looked only at families who had at least
one child who was born before the injury occurred and was still living
at home. There was an equal number of boys and girls in the study,
ranging in age from 2 to 23 years.
	Fathers were the injured parents in 16 of the 24 families,
mothers in 8. The age of the injured parent ranged from 25 to 53
years, and time since injury was 16 to 84 months. Twenty of the 24
subjects were considered to have severe brain injury.
	The uninjured parents answered questionnaires concerning their
children's behavioral changes, as well as parenting changes in
themselves and in their brain-injured spouses. Injured spouses
answered questions concerning changes in their own parenting behavior.
	Seventeen of the 24 uninjured parents scored above the norm
for depression, a finding that was significantly related to reduced
parenting performance of both parents .
	Five families reported a substantial increase in children
acting out. This behavior included poor grades and problems at school,
absenteeism, temper outbursts and disobeying the injured parent.
	Ten families reported a substantial increase in children's
relationship problems, which included being less loving toward the
injured parent, not wanting to spend time with the injured parent and
not bringing friends home.  Children in four families had substantial
emotional problems, such as headaches, bad dreams and refusing to go
out with friends.
	Pessar said the results suggest that rehabilitation efforts
for traumatic brain injury should include a family assessment, and
should pay particular attention to the presence of depression in
parents, the parenting behavior of both parents and their effects on
children 
	"Depression is eminently treatable," Pessar said. "That
intervention may make a difference in the entire family.