Psychosocial adjustment in children with port-wine stains and prominent ears.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate psychosocial adjustment in children with port-wine stain (PWS) and children with prominent ears (PE).


METHODS
Thirty-two children aged 7 to 16 years with facial PWS and 42 children with PE were evaluated using the Harter Self-Perception Profile, the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, the Children's Depression Inventory, the Disfigurement Perception Scale, and the Child Behavior Checklist. Results were compared with normative data for the local population or with a control group. Profile scores were correlated with severity of the PWS or prominence of the ears.


RESULTS
Children with PE had poorer self-perception, higher concentration anxiety, and more internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and they were more withdrawn and had more social problems than children with PWS. The children with PWS functioned as well as or better than nondisfigured peers on measurements of psychosocial adjustment, while children with PE scored lower than nondisfigured peers on measures of self-perception and parent-rated social and attention problems. There was no correlation between degree of disfigurement and level of psychosocial adjustment.


CONCLUSIONS
Psychosocial adjustment varied according to the nature of the disfigurement or deformity and was unrelated to the severity of the disfigurement.
Sheerin
D
D
Regional Child and Family Centre, Drogheda, Ireland.
MacLeod
M
M
Kusumakar
V
V
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004431:Ear, External / Q000002:abnormalities*; D005260:Female; D006391:Hemangioma / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D012649:Self Concept; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D012917:Social Adjustment