Coping with a Cleft: Psychosocial Adjustment of Adolescents with a Cleft Lip and Palate and Their Parents

Abstract

The findings show little evidence of significant psychosocial adjustment difficulties for adolescents with a cleft or for their mothers. The concepts of adjustment, coping, satisfaction with appearance, and maternal mental health in this population are discussed. The results highlight the importance of timely interventions and seeking multiple perspectives in clinical management of a cleft. Questions are raised about the completion of self-report measures for future research in this population.

Parent and child ratings of satisfaction with speech and facial appearance in Flemish pre-pubescent boys and girls with unilateral cleft lip and palate

“…Men more dissatisfied with their speech * More women wanted corrections to their lips * Parents of girls/boys more concerned about their daughters' appearance/sons' speech BERGER et al2 * 145 adolescent-parent pairs * Between 11 and 16 years * Comparison with published normative data…”

Measuring Quality of Life in Cleft Lip and Palate Patients

“…We identified 44 instruments used in cleft lip and palate studies. After 15 ad hoc questionnaires, 7,19-26 eight generic instruments, 6,10,27-30 11 psychiatric instruments, 8,12,[31][32][33][34][35][36] and one non-English language questionnaire 37 were excluded, nine cleft lip and palate relevant measures remained. Of these, four were never validated in the cleft population.…”

“…11 The treatment of cleft lip and palate affects many domains related to a patient's quality of life, including appearance, speech, social integration, self-image, and physical and psychological functioning. 3,[12][13][14][15] Instruments related to just one domain, such as speech, cannot fully assess the effect of cleft lip and palate on a patient. To investigate the various dimensions of cleft lip and palate, it is necessary to develop a cleft-specific instrument that considers all of these domains.…”

Comparative Effectiveness Studies Examining Patient-Reported Outcomes among Children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate

“…The patient population for 18 studies consisted of cleft lip, cleft palate, and cleft lip and cleft palate patients. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] Cleft palate and cleft lip and cleft palate patients only were grouped together in three studies. [42][43][44] Cleft lip and cleft palate patients were included in seven studies.…”