Emotional functioning and self-perceived severity of youth with pectus excavatum

Currently, there is little research on self-perception and the psychological impact of concealable deformities such as pectus excavatum (PE). The current study addresses this gap by comparing self-perceived severity, actual physical severity, and depressive symptoms in youth with PE. Substantiating parents' and physicians' concerns, participants' scores on the Youth Self-Report depression subscales were significantly higher than non-clinical normative samples, indicating more depressive symptoms. Analyses of self-perceived severity, the Haller Index (HI; a medical measure of PE severity), and depressive symptoms substantiated the importance of subjective self-perception. There were no significant correlations between the HI of physical severity and depressive affect; however, youths' perceptions of severity correlated strongly and predicted depressive affect. The results suggest that youth with PE may be at risk for depressive disorders, and that self-perception, not actual physical severity, is the better predictor of the psychosocial impact of the deformity.

Author dc:creator

• Gill, Jennie K.

Advisor dc:contributor.supervisor

• Martin, Joan M.

• human abnormalities
• psychological aspects
• chest surgery

Statement dc:rights

• Available to the World Wide Web

Language dc:language.iso

en, English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1828/2071

OAI record oai:identifier

https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Adspace.library.uvic.ca%3A1828%2F2071