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Behavioural profile and maternal stress in Greek young children with Williams syndrome
C Papaeliou1, N Polemikos, E Fryssira
1Department of Preschool Education and of The Educational Planning, University of The Aegean, Rhodes, Dodecanese, Greece. papailiou@rhodes.aegean.gr
Insights
Children with Williams syndrome (WS) show more emotional problems and anxiety than children with Down syndrome or typically developing children. Maternal stress was also higher in mothers of children with WS.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Genetics
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder associated with intellectual disability and social functioning challenges.
- Maladaptive behaviors in WS require syndrome-specific investigation and cross-cultural data.
- Socio-emotional profiles in WS are understudied across diverse cultural contexts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the behavioral profile of Greek children with Williams syndrome.
- To examine the relationship between maternal stress and behavioral issues in children with WS.
- To compare the socio-emotional profile of children with WS to those with Down syndrome and typically developing children.
Main Methods:
- Study included 60 mothers (20 each with Williams syndrome, Down syndrome, and typically developing children), matched for mental age.
- Child Behavior Checklist (1.5-5 years) assessed behavioral profiles.
- Parental Stress Index measured maternal stress levels.
Main Results:
- Children with WS exhibited significantly higher rates of emotional problems and anxiety/depression compared to both Down syndrome and typically developing children.
- Mothers of children with WS reported significantly higher total stress scores than mothers of typically developing children.
- Contrary to some previous studies, only 25% of children with WS scored in the clinical range on the total Child Behavior Checklist.
Conclusions:
- Consistent socio-emotional characteristics in WS across cultures suggest a strong genetic influence.
- Greek mothers tended not to classify these behaviors as pathological.
- Findings offer implications for clinical practice and understanding WS behavioral phenotypes.
Background:
Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder causing intellectual disability. Children with WS often exhibit various kinds of maladaptive behaviours that affect their social functioning. In order to determine whether these behaviours are syndrome-specific, it would be necessary to compare children with WS with children with other syndromes as well as to provide data on the socio-emotional profile in WS from a variety of cultures. The present study investigated the behavioural profile and its relation to maternal stress in Greek young children with WS in comparison with young children with Down syndrome and typically developing (TD) children.
Methods:
Participants were 60 mothers, 20 in each syndrome group and 20 in the control group. The three groups were matched for mental age. The behavioural profile of the participants was investigated through the Child Behaviour Checklist (1.5-5 years) and maternal stress through the Parental Stress Index.
Results:
In accordance with studies in other cultures, it was found that young children with WS received significantly higher rates in emotional problems and anxiety/depression, compared with both children with Down syndrome and TD children. Moreover, mothers of children with WS reported significantly higher scores in the Total Stress index compared with mothers of TD children. However, in contrast with previous studies, only 25% of children with WS fell into the clinical range in the total Child Behavior Checklist score.
Conclusion:
The consistency of the socio-emotional characteristics of children with WS across cultures and developmental stages implies a strong influence of the genetic phenotype. However, Greek mothers avoided to characterize these behaviours as pathological. Implications of these findings for clinical practice are also discussed.
