Using Community Detection Analysis to Elucidate Caregivers’ Mental Models of Pediatric Concussion Symptoms

Abstract

Due to a culture of resistance around concussion reporting, novel methods are needed to reveal implicit beliefs that could affect symptom reporting. The goal of this study was to elucidate caregivers’ mental models of pediatric concussion symptoms using an exploratory community detection analysis (CDA). Caregivers (n = 76) of adolescents 10–15 years old participated in a survey that assessed their intentions of seeking medical treatment for 12 injury symptoms following their child’s involvement in three hypothetical injury scenarios. We used a series of analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to compare injury symptoms across these scenarios and CDA to determine if caregivers implicitly group symptoms together. We then used logistic regressions to further explore associations between the CDA-identified symptom indices and known factors of injury risk. There were no differences in the likelihood to seek treatment for symptoms across injury scenarios; however, the CDA revealed distinct symptom clusters that were characterized by the degree of risk for non-treatment and symptom type. We observed associations between injury risk factors and intentions of seeking medical treatment for the higher-risk indices. Results indicate that caregivers’ mental models of concussion symptoms are nuanced, not monolithic. Therefore, it is inaccurate to measure intentions to seek treatment for concussion without taking these nuances into consideration.

Evaluating disparities in child occupant protection using a proportion-eliminated approach to mediation

“…Additionally, injury prevention researchers have posited that children's injury risk results from interactions among child, caregiver, and contextual/environmental factors. In other contexts, caregivers contribute to child injury risk through an interaction of caregiver supervision and individual differences in caregiver attributes (e.g., risk tolerance) (Morrongiello and House 2004;Saluja et al 2004;Schwebel et al 2011;Goodman et al 2018). For families living in stressed contexts (e.g., poverty), caregiver attitudes and sociodemographic factors may be especially associated with a child's risk of injury (Middlemiss 2003), but there is little research on this topic outside of the child abuse and neglect literature, and none related to CRS use.…”