Linking Family Functioning and Self-Discrepancies among Children with Functional Somatic Symptoms

Silberg, Tamar; Drucker-Bezalel, Hila; Gerner, Maya; Krasovsky, Tal; Berant, Ety; Brezner, Amichai; Landa, Jana

doi:10.1007/s10826-017-0985-0

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…In children as in adults, they are associated with significant symptoms of depression and anxiety [20,21]. MUS can also have a detrimental effect on school attendance [22] and impact on family functioning with increased anxiety, depression and decreased quality of life among parents of affected children [23]. A systematic review of the paediatric literature identified that psychological interventions are associated with a significant reduction in symptom load, disability and school absence and should be the treatment of choice for many of the young people experiencing medically unexplained symptoms [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia in children with medically unexplained symptoms: a systematic review

Hadjimichael

McAllister

Reilly

et al. 2019

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

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Objective: Adult research investigating the link between alexithymia and medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) has found a significant relationship between increased alexithymia and MUS. This difficulty in expressing emotions is likely to begin in childhood so the objective of this paper is to present a quantitative review of studies focussing on the association between MUS and alexithymia in children. Methods: Databases were searched with predefined terms relating to alexithymia and MUS in children (0-17 years). Two reviewers independently assessed abstracts, extracted data and undertook quality analyses. Systematic review methods were used in accordance with Cochrane guidelines. Results: Ten studies met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Seven of the eight studies which focused on a comparison between children with MUS and healthy controls, found higher levels of self-reported alexithymia in the children with MUS. However, in the two studies where children were asked to complete tasks that objectively measure alexithymia, significant differences were not found. Results of studies comparing alexithymia in children with MUS and children with medical/psychiatric controls were inconsistent; there was some evidence of increased anxiety and depression in young people with alexithymia and MUS but inconsistency of measures across studies makes drawing conclusions difficult. Conclusion: There is preliminary evidence that children with MUS have significantly higher levels of alexithymia than controls based on self-report measures; however, this finding was not replicated in objective tasks of alexithymia. Future studies should include validated tasks that objectively measure emotion recognition abilities and focus on possible mediating factors such as neurodevelopmental and mental health difficulties.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia in children with medically unexplained symptoms: a systematic review

Hadjimichael

McAllister

Reilly

et al. 2019

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

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“…Lower ought sexual self-discrepancy scores indicated minimal ought sexual self-discrepancies, suggesting the participant's actual sexual self was very similar to their ought sexual self. If participants were unable to list five traits or attributes for each sexual self-state, they were shown 45 sexual-related adjectives reported in prior research [38] to choose from; providing a list of adjectives is standard practice in the use of the ISDI if participants have a hard time thinking of traits or attributes [39]. Having participants think of their traits or attributes and list them from memory is common practice in self-discrepancy research [7,40].…”

Section: Sexually Modified Integrated Self-discrepancy Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual Self Discrepancies, Sexual Satisfaction, and Relationship Satisfaction in a Cross-Sectional Sample of Women Who Experience Chronic Vaginal Pain during Sexual Intercourse

Moore,

Sitron

2024

Healthcare

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One out of three women may suffer from chronic vaginal pain during intercourse, a complex health issue that leads to lasting psychological, sexual, emotional, and relational difficulties even after initial relief. Women who experience this pain condition may compare their sexual selves to the societal norm of being pain-free. Comparisons that do not align with one’s actual sexual self result in sexual self-discrepancies and may cause emotional distress. Sexual self-discrepancies may hinder sexual and relationship satisfaction for women who experience chronic vaginal pain during sexual intercourse. This mixed-method study examined the sexual self-discrepancies women reported and the degree to which their sexual self-discrepancies were related to their sexual and relationship satisfaction. Results from this cross-sectional study showed that the majority of participants experienced sexual self-discrepancies and that they experienced a significant inverse correlation between sexual self-discrepancies and sexual satisfaction. In multivariate models, sex frequency was the strongest predictor of sexual satisfaction. There were no correlations between sexual self-discrepancies and relationship satisfaction. Future measurement research should examine the role of sex frequency in the experience of sexual satisfaction. Education on maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain may aid women to cope with the negative impact of pain.

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“…Concordant with this dynamic model, the self-discrepancy theory argues that people organize and feel according to a set of internalized states about themselves and a higher gap between the real and ideal perceived levels results in emotional vulnerability and discomfort , Higgins, 1989Barnett et al, 2017;Silberg et al, 2018;Hu et al, 2017). Frain and colleagues (2008) also describe quality of life as a perceptive outcome of their position in life, but taking into account personal goals, expectations, standards and concerns.…”

Section: Exploring Perceived Discrepancies Regarding Family Functiona...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Ideal and Real Discrepancies of Family Functionality Perception over the Quality of Life in a Minority Population

Tofan

2024

CJFY

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The perceived discrepancies of adolescents regarding family functionality (the real vs. the ideal) and how it predicts their mental and physical quality of life are tested. A cross-sectional study using questionnaires was conducted. Roma adolescents (N = 139) with ages ranging from 12 to 17 years participated. Out of all, 38% are boys and 61,5% are girls. Results show that mental quality of life is predicted by family cohesion and family adjustment and suggest a nonlinear relation for physical quality of life. The discrepancy between the real and ideal levels of family cohesion determines adolescent’s mental quality of life. The direction of the discrepancy shows that mental quality of life is higher when the real family cohesion level is higher than the ideal one. The results suggest that both mental and physical quality of life of adolescents are predicted by family cohesion and family adjustment. People tend to thrive while having an image about themselves and they form this image by considering an ideal or a necessary way of being. Comparing the ideal to the real and present image of themselves people might experience maladjustment and could determine their mental health. The results of the study show that family cohesion and family adjustment perception of children determine their quality of life. Moreover, discrepancies between the ideal and real level are also an important determining factor for quality of life.

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Linking Family Functioning and Self-Discrepancies among Children with Functional Somatic Symptoms

Cited by 5 publications

References 43 publications

Alexithymia in children with medically unexplained symptoms: a systematic review

Alexithymia in children with medically unexplained symptoms: a systematic review

Sexual Self Discrepancies, Sexual Satisfaction, and Relationship Satisfaction in a Cross-Sectional Sample of Women Who Experience Chronic Vaginal Pain during Sexual Intercourse

The Impact of Ideal and Real Discrepancies of Family Functionality Perception over the Quality of Life in a Minority Population

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