The social outcomes of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) were examined in a prospective, longitudinal study that included 53 children with severe TBI, 56 with moderate TBI, and 80 with orthopedic injuries, recruited between 6 and 12 years of age. Child and family functioning were assessed at baseline, at 6- and 12-month follow-ups, and at an extended follow-up a mean of 4 years post injury. Growth curve analyses revealed that pediatric TBI yields negative social outcomes that are exacerbated by family environments characterized by lower socioeconomic status, fewer family resources, and poorer family functioning. After controlling for group membership, age, race, socioeconomic status, and IQ, path analyses indicated that long-term social outcomes were accounted for in part by specific neurocognitive skills, including executive functions and pragmatic language, and by social problem-solving. Deficits in these domains among children with TBI are likely to reflect damage to a network of brain regions that have been implicated in social cognition.

Each area of parent functioning associated with pediatric parenting stress is amenable to behavioral intervention aimed at stress reduction or control and improvement of parent psychological and child-health outcomes.

Social‐cognitive theory and conservation‐of‐resources theory were utilized to understand individual differences in psychological response to natural disaster. Coping self‐efficacy, lost resources, social support, and optimism were assessed along with demographic variables in predicting distress following Hurricane Opal. Participants included 67 residents of Okaloosa County, Florida. Multiple regression analyses indicated that coping self‐efficacy was the strongest predictor of general distress and trauma‐related distress. Loss of resources and gender were also important predictors of general distress. Path analyses demonstrated that lost resources directly influenced general distress, social support, optimism, and coping self‐efficacy. These analyses also indicated that coping self‐efficacy perceptions mediated the relationships between loss of resources and trauma‐related distress, social support and both trauma and general distress, and optimism and both types of distress. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Continued parental supervision of adolescents, along with monitoring diabetes knowledge and efficacy, may help optimize transfer of diabetes care from parents to youths. Behavior problems warrant immediate attention because of their direct and adverse relation to metabolic control.