Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 22, 2026
Measuring Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Activity in Toddlers - Resting and Developmental Challenges
Published on: February 25, 2016
Understanding mothers' perception of child's illness: Adapting the CONNECT Instrument for pediatrics
Kristin Magner1, Dawn Bragg2, Robert Treat3
1Division of Pediatric Critical Care, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin/Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Insights
This study adapted the CONNECT Instrument for pediatric use, finding it valid and reliable for understanding mothers' illness perceptions. Pediatric providers showed understanding of these perceptions, improving parent-provider communication.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric healthcare research
- Patient-provider communication
- Psychometric validation
Background:
- The CONNECT Instrument, validated in adults, previously excluded pediatric populations and advanced practice providers.
- Understanding patient perspectives is crucial for effective healthcare delivery.
Purpose of the Study:
- Adapt the CONNECT Instrument for pediatric use (CONNECT for Pediatrics).
- Assess the validity and reliability of the adapted CONNECT for Pediatrics instrument.
- Evaluate concordance between mothers' illness perceptions and healthcare providers' understanding.
Main Methods:
- Prospective, cross-sectional, observational study design.
- Adaptation of the original CONNECT Instrument for the inpatient pediatric setting.
- Enrollment of 85 participants (mothers, advanced practice providers, physicians) in a pediatric epilepsy monitoring unit.
- Statistical analyses including principal components analysis, inter-item reliability, and RM-ANOVA.
Main Results:
- The adapted CONNECT for Pediatrics demonstrated good validity and reliability.
- Statistically significant differences were observed between mothers' and physicians' perceptions in the domains of meaning and preference for partnership.
- Pediatric advanced practice providers and physicians demonstrated an understanding of mothers' illness perceptions.
Conclusions:
- The CONNECT for Pediatrics is a valid and reliable tool for assessing mothers' illness perceptions in a pediatric setting.
- Healthcare providers possess an understanding of mothers' perceptions of their child's illness.
- This instrument can enhance communication and understanding between parents and pediatric healthcare providers.
Aims And Objectives:
To adapt the CONNECT Instrument for use in the paediatric population, to assess validity of this instrument after its adaptation and to assess concordance between mothers' perception of their child's illness and providers' understanding of mothers' perceptions.
Background:
The CONNECT Instrument (Patient Education and Counseling, 73, 2008, 232-239) was validated in an adult outpatient population to characterise both patients' perspectives and physicians' understanding of their patients' perspectives for several dimensions of the illness experience. However, this did not include the paediatric population or advanced practice providers.
Design:
A two-part prospective, cross-sectional, observational study to assess the validity of CONNECT for Pediatrics and to assess perception of illness.
Methods:
The CONNECT Instrument (Patient Version) was adapted from its original form and modified to CONNECT for Pediatrics to facilitate use in the inpatient paediatric population. Eighty-five participants were enrolled including mothers, advanced practice providers and physicians from 2013-2014 during a child's scheduled admission to a paediatric epilepsy monitoring unit. Principal components analysis and inter-item reliability were analysed, and differences in the six mean domain scores were assessed using repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA). Reporting of this research adheres to the STROBE guidelines (See Appendix S1).
Results:
Our analysis indicated that the modifications made provided a relatively valid and reliable instrument. There were overall statistically significant differences between the mother and physician groups, specifically in the domains of meaning and preference for partnership.
Conclusions:
Paediatric advanced practice providers and physicians do have an understanding of mothers' perception of illness.
Relevance To Clinical Practice:
The ability of physicians and advanced practice providers to understand mothers' perceptions of illness is increasingly important in a changing healthcare environment. CONNECT for Pediatrics facilitates the identification of mothers' perception of their child's illness and provides the opportunity for paediatric advanced practice providers and physicians to understand parents' perception of illness.
More Related Videos
08:42A Familiarization Protocol Facilitates the Participation of Children with ASD in Electrophysiological Research
Published on: July 31, 2017
11:50Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Published on: January 7, 2020
Related Concept Videos
01:18Factors Affecting Illness
For instance, risk factors are connected to illness, disability,...
01:17Classification of Illness
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe and...
01:18Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results from...
01:15Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
01:24Nursing Process for Patient and Caregiver Teaching I: Assessment and Diagnosis
It is critical to determine the patient's learning needs during the assessment. Determination of learning needs compounds data from the...
01:13Patient-centered Care