Children with closed head injuries often experience significant and persistent disruptions in their social and behavioral functioning. Studies with adults sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBI) indicate deficits in emotion recognition and suggest that these difficulties may underlie some of the social deficits. The goal of the current study was to examine if children sustaining a TBI exhibit difficulties with emotion recognition in terms of emotional prosody and face emotion recognition and to determine (1) how these abilities change over time and (2) what, if any, additional factors such as sex, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) affected the findings. Results provide general support for the idea that children sustaining a TBI exhibit deficits in emotional prosody and face emotion recognition performance. Further, although some gains were noted in the TBI group over the two-years following injury, factors such as SES and age at injury influenced the trajectory of recovery. The current findings indicate the relationship between TBI and emotion recognition is complex and may be influenced by a number of developmental and environmental factors. Results are discussed in terms of their similarity to previous investigations demonstrating the influence of environmental factors on behavioral recovery following pediatric TBI, and with regard to future investigations that can further explore the link between emotion recognition deficits and long-term behavioral and psychosocial recovery.

Social problem solving was assessed in 28 youth ages 12-19 years (15 with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), 13 uninjured) using a naturalistic, computerized virtual reality (VR) version of the Interpersonal Negotiations Strategy interview (Yeates, Schultz, & Selman, 1991). In each scenario, processing load condition was varied in terms of number of characters and amount of information. Adolescents viewed animated scenarios depicting social conflict in a virtual microworld environment from an avatar's viewpoint, and were questioned on four problem solving steps: defining the problem, generating solutions, selecting solutions, and evaluating the likely outcome. Scoring was based on a developmental scale in which responses were judged as impulsive, unilateral, reciprocal, or collaborative, in order of increasing score. Adolescents with TBI were significantly impaired on the summary VR-Social Problem Solving (VR-SPS) score in Condition A (2 speakers, no irrelevant information), p = 0.005; in Condition B (2 speakers + irrelevant information), p = 0.035; and Condition C (4 speakers + irrelevant information), p = 0.008. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) were large (A = 1.40, B = 0.96, C = 1.23). Significant group differences were strongest and most consistent for defining the problems and evaluating outcomes. The relation of task performance to cortical thickness of specific brain regions was also explored, with significant relations found with orbitofrontal regions, the frontal pole, the cuneus, and the temporal pole. Results are discussed in the context of specific cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying social problem solving deficits after childhood TBI.

Objective This study investigated the relationship between family functioning and performance on two tasks of emotion recognition (emotional prosody and face emotion recognition) and a cognitive control procedure (the Flanker task) following paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) or orthopaedic injury (OI). Methods A total of 142 children (75 TBI, 67 OI) were assessed on three occasions: baseline, 3 months and 1 year post-injury on the two emotion recognition tasks and the Flanker task. Caregivers also completed the Life Stressors and Resources Scale (LISRES) on each occasion. Growth curve analysis was used to analyse the data. Results Results indicated that family functioning influenced performance on the emotional prosody and Flanker tasks but not on the face emotion recognition task. Findings on both the emotional prosody and Flanker tasks were generally similar across groups. However, financial resources emerged as significantly related to emotional prosody performance in the TBI group only (p = 0.0123). Conclusions Findings suggest family functioning variables—especially financial resources—can influence performance on an emotional processing task following TBI in children.

For this pilot study, we compared performance of 15 adolescents with moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) to that of 13 typically developing (TD) adolescents in predicting social actions and consequences for avatars in a virtual microworld environment faced with dilemmas involving legal or moral infractions. Performance was analyzed in relation to cortical thickness in brain regions implicated in social cognition. Groups did not differ in number of actions predicted nor in reasons cited for predictions when presented only the conflict situation. After viewing the entire scenario, including the choice made by the avatar, TD and TBI adolescents provided similar numbers of short-term consequences. However, TD adolescents provided significantly more long-term consequences (p = .010). Additionally, for the Overall qualitative score, TD adolescents' responses were more likely to reflect the long-term impact of the decision made (p = .053). Groups differed in relation of the Overall measure to thickness of right medial prefrontal cortex/frontal pole and precuneus, with stronger relations for the TD group (p < .01). For long-term consequences, the relations to the posterior cingulate, superior medial frontal, and precentral regions, and to a lesser extent, the middle temporal region, were stronger for the TBI group (p < .01).

About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The study is a preliminary attempt to identify cognitive factors (e.g., executive functions and intelligence) promoting resilience in youth in an underprivileged population. Sample consisted of 26 adolescents (seven female, 19 male) between the ages of 13 and 19 years (M ¼ 16.62, SD ¼ 1.53) from an underserved population who live in circumstances of poverty and family dysfunction and who had experienced multiple traumas. Design/methodology/approach -Resilience was measured with the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM)-28. Intelligence, working memory, and information processing speed were the cognitive factors of interest. Socioeconomic status was the environmental factor in interest. Findings -The protective factors (i.e. individual skills, relationship with caregivers and contextual factors) promoting resilience were correlated with cognitive factors. Further analyses yielded gender differences in these relations. Originality/value -Long-held beliefs that intelligence is positively associated with resilience are brought into question by these findings. The relationship between these concepts seems to differ in accordance with socioeconomic status.