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Adjustment after pediatric burn injury may be a challenge for children as well as their parents. This prospective study examined associations of internalizing and externalizing problems in children and adolescents 12 months postburn with preburn functioning, and parental acute and chronic posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) from different perspectives. Child, mother, and father reports of 90 children (9–18 years), collected within the first month and 12 months postburn, were analyzed. Results indicated that overall, child and parental appraisals of pre- and postburn behavioral problems were not significantly different from reference data. Rates of (sub)clinical postburn behavioral problems ranged from 6 to 17 %, depending on the informant. Pre- and postburn behavioral problems were significantly related, but only from the parents’ perspective. Path models showed an association between parental PTSS 12 months postburn and parental reports of child internalizing problems, as well as a significant indirect relationship from parental acute stress symptoms via PTSS 12 months postburn. Notably, no associations between parental PTSS and child reports of postburn behavioral problems were found. In conclusion, parental observations of child externalizing problems appear to be influenced by their perspectives on the child’s preburn functioning, while parental observations of internalizing problems are also related to long-term parental PTSS. However, these factors seem of no great value in predicting behavioral problems from the child’s perspective, suggesting substantial informant deviations. To optimize adjustment, clinical burn practice is recommended to adopt a family perspective including parent perception of preburn functioning and parental PTSS in assessment and intervention.

Increasing evidence points to good functional, aesthetic, and psychosocial outcomes after face transplantation. However, research investigating how patients and their families subjectively experience the transplantation process is lacking thus far. This study aims to investigate the personal experiences of a blind face transplant patient and his partner. In-depth interviews exploring different experiences were conducted with both partners separately 20 months after face transplantation. The interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Seven themes were identified in both interviews: coping with the facial trauma, motivation for the face transplantation, outcomes of the face transplantation, acceptance of the new face, gratitude toward the donor family, relation to the medical team, and dealing with the media. Two further themes were only mentioned by the patient (coping with complications and coping with blindness) and one theme only by the partner (loss of choices). The results of this study increase our understanding of the transplantation process as experienced by a face transplant recipient and his partner. They may help to better inform professionals to optimize transplantation procedures or supportive interventions.

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To date, psychosocial outcomes after face transplantation are promising, although the impact on family relationships is less well investigated. Depressive and anxiety symptoms, resilience, spousal support, dyadic adjustment, family functioning of a patient and the partner were assessed before, and two, three and four years after the face transplantation. Most psychological, marital and family scores of both partners remained within a normative and healthy range at follow‐up. Resilience, illness cognitions, physical quality of life, and family affective responsiveness and communication of the patient further improved, whereas the partner reported higher resilience and dyadic consensus at four years after transplantation. The results of this study point to positive long‐term psychosocial outcomes of a blind patient and his partner after face transplantation. Practitioner points Psychological health of patient and partner remains good after face transplantation Marital and family functioning remains stable after face transplantation and may even improve Face transplantation may strengthen the resilience of the patient and the partner