Authors
FRANCESCO PRECENZANO*, MARIA RUBERTO**, LUCIA PARISI***, MARGHERITA SALERNO****, AGATA MALTESE***, ILARIA D’ALESSANDRO*, MARIA FRANCESCA GRAPPA*, ROSARIA MARTINA MAGLIULO*, GIOVANNI MESSINA*****, MICHELE ROCCELLA***
Departments
*Clinic of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Headache Center for children and adolescents; Department of Mental Health and Physical and Preventive Medicine, Second University of Naples -
**Department of Medical-Surgical and Dental Specialties, Second University of Naples -
***Department of Psychological, Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, University of Palermo, Italy -
****Sciences for Mother and Child Health Promotion, University of Palermo, Italy -
*****Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Human Physiology and Unit of Dietetics and Sports Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy
#Francesco Precenzano and Maria Ruberto equally contributed to the manuscript
Abstract
Introduction: Borderline intellectual functioning (BIF) children comprises a group of subjects whit intelligence quotient (IQ) ranging 71-85, with a prevalence about 13.6%. Several studies pinpointed the role of parenting on BIF management. Aim of present study was evaluating with objective and validated tool the parental stress rate in mothers of an Italian sample of BIF children.
Materials and methods: 26 BIF children (20 males and 6 females) aged 6-10 years (mean age 10.36± 2.03), according to DSM-5 criteria, and 53 (42 males and 11 females) typical developing children (mean age 10.58 ± 1.97) were recruited for present study. Mothers of all enrolled children underwent an evaluation with Parental Stress Index (PSI) test.
Results: The two studied groups were comparable for age (p = 0.646) and gender (p = 0.956). Table 1 shows comparison between BIF and Control groups among PSI-SF scale results (Table 1), specifically mothers of BIF children have a significantly higher levels of global parental stress (p <0.001 ), stress related to parenting (p <0.001), stress linked to difficult child (p <0.001) and stress related to parent-child interaction (p <0.001) than mothers of control children. (Table 1)
Conclusion: Several reports showed the key role of BIF as risk factor for psychiatric troubles and poor long-term adjustment. Our findings emphasize the need to approach this condition also from a family point of
Keywords
borderline intellectual functioning, BIF, parental stress index, PSI.
DOI:
10.19193/0393-6384_2016_6_160
