Personality Traits and Social Supports in Adolescents With Persistent Postconcussion Symptoms

Abstract

Objectives: To determine whether adolescents with persistent postconcussion symptoms (PPCS) differ from healthy peers in their personality traits and social supports. Setting: Specialty Concussion Clinic and Primary Care Clinic affiliated with an academic medical center. Participants: Ninety-seven adolescents (42 with PPCS, 55 healthy peers; age: 15 ± 2 years). Design: Participants completed a web-based survey that included medical and demographic characteristics, mechanisms of concussion, 10-item Big Five Inventory, and Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale. A Student's 2-tailed t test with multiple testing corrections was used to compare the youths with PPCS to healthy peers. Main Measures: The primary outcome was PPCS, defined by the presence of 2 or more concussionrelated symptoms on the Post-Concussion Symptom Scale (PCSS), lasting for more than 4 weeks after initial injury. The secondary outcome was perceived personality traits and social support, based on the 10-item Big Five Inventory and the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale, respectively. Results: The PPCS group had higher neuroticism scores on their Big Five Inventory than healthy peers. They also reported less social support from teachers and classmates than healthy peers. Conclusion: Youths with PPCS report specific personality and social support characteristics that differ from their peers. These findings suggest that individual personality and schoolbased social supports may influence concussion recovery.

Psychosocial Factors Associated With Time to Recovery After Concussion in Adolescent Ice Hockey Players

“…Peer and other forms of social support have been shown to be important in facilitating recovery from pediatric concussion; children identify a need to rely on friends for support during recovery and adolescents who experience persistent PCS often report lower levels of peer support. 62,63 The adolescents in our study who reported more peer problems may not have had the same access to social supports as adolescents who reported fewer peer problems and may have therefore experienced a longer time to RTP. Peer-related problems may also be a marker for other functional difficulties that put adolescents at risk of persistent PCS.…”