Parental perceptions of pre-adolescent children who have experienced a febrile convulsion: effects of social class and gender.

OBJECTIVES

To examine whether, in terms of parental reports, the behaviour of pre-adolescent children who have been hospitalized following a febrile convulsion in infancy--without intracranial infection--differ from a group hospitalized with a non-febrile illness.

DESIGN

A between-groups comparison of febrile and non-febrile children and a within-group comparison by gender and social class design were used.

METHOD: The study compared 57 children, aged 9-12 years, who had experienced febrile convulsions before the age of 4 with a group of 66 children of similar age who had been hospitalized for non-convulsive conditions. Behaviour was measured using the Rutter A Parent Scale, the Berg Self-Administered Dependency Questionnaire (SDAQ) and the Werry-Weiss-Peters Activity Rating Scale.

RESULTS

The scores of the children who had experienced a febrile convulsion in early life did not differ significantly from those of unaffected controls on any of the three measuring instruments. There were, however, marked social class differences on all three, with working-class children tending to lean towards poorer social adjustment than their middle-class peers. There was also one significant gender difference: boys received higher Assistance scores than girls on the SDAQ.

CONCLUSIONS

In terms of social behavioural sequelae, febrile convulsions do not appear to have long-term effects. Hence, reassurance of a favourable outcome at the time of the seizure may ameliorate parents' worries at this frightening event in their child's life.