Identifying the variables impacting post-burn psychological adjustment: A meta-analysis

Objective The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate variables that have the greatest impact on psychological adjustment after burn injury among children, adolescents, and young adults. Methods Meta-analytical procedures were utilized to determine the strength of association indices of identified impact variables. Only 13 articles were utilized due to the scarcity of and statist-ical limitations of the research. Results The body location variable (.26) had the greatest mean strength of association in relation to psychological adjustment. The burn injury variable (.21) had the second greatest mean strength of association. Finally, both the parental adjustment variable and the child premorbid psychological functioning variable (.15) had the third greatest mean strength of association. Conclusions A major implication of this research is that the impact variables identi-fied will be useful in targeting burn patients who are at risk for psychological adjustment problems. Key words burn adjustment; pediatric burn. Approximately 1 million children in the United States sustain burn injuries each year (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2000). While some burn injuries can be acute life-threatening events, they can also share similar char