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Speech and Language Difficulties Along with Other Child and Family Factors Associated with Health Related Quality of Life of Australian Children

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Abstract

Speech and/or language difficulties (SaLD) can potentially compromise a child’s health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL). Very few studies have examined associations between SaLD, other child and family factors and HRQoL and none have been undertaken in Australia. We explore these associations using data from a nationally representative Australian sample of 4–5 year old children, extracted from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) (n = 4386). The Disability-Stress-Coping Model informed variable selection. Three domains of HRQoL were examined, and assessed on physical, emotional and social functioning subscales of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL). SaLD measures included parent concern about speech/language (Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status) and receptive vocabulary ability (adapted Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III). Multiple regression analyses revealed that various child and family factors representing all constructs from the Disability-Stress-Coping Model were significantly associated with HRQoL. Specifically, HRQoL was positively associated with parental warmth and child’s general health and negatively associated with parent speech/language concerns and maternal depression across all domains. Parents with concerns about their pre-school child’s speech and language rate the quality of their child’s health more poorly across physical, emotional and social domains. Associations between parent speech/language concerns and HRQoL were notable for being apparent in a (non-clinical) population sample and for persisting independent of factors such as maternal depression, parenting style and the child’s general health.

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Notes

  1. Unstandardised regression coefficient, B, describes the statistical relationship between one or more predictor variables and the outcome variable in terms of the original units of measurement of those variables.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, 74 Gatton St, Mount Gravatt East, QLD 4122, Brisbane, Australia

    Rachel Feeney, Laura Desha & Asaduzzaman Khan

  2. School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Children’s Allied Health Research, Queensland Health, Brisbane, Australia

    Jenny Ziviani

  3. Judith Lumley Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Jan M. Nicholson

  4. Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia

    Jan M. Nicholson

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  1. Rachel Feeney
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  2. Laura Desha
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  3. Asaduzzaman Khan
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Correspondence to Rachel Feeney.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The LSAC was approved by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) Ethics Committee and written informed consent to participate was obtained from parents of participating children. Ethical considerations pertaining to secondary data analysis were examined before the present analyses were undertaken. Because the current research involved analysis of existing data for which ethical approval was obtained, there was no requirement for additional approval from a relevant ethical review committee.

Funding

JMN was supported by the Transition to Contemporary Parenthood Program at La Trobe University and the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence for Child Language at Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (GNT 1023493).

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Feeney, R., Desha, L., Khan, A. et al. Speech and Language Difficulties Along with Other Child and Family Factors Associated with Health Related Quality of Life of Australian Children. Applied Research Quality Life 11, 1379–1397 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-015-9443-6

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