College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

Spring 6-13-2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Susan Tran, PhD

Second Advisor

Joanna Buscemi, PhD

Third Advisor

Jocelyn Carter, PhD

Abstract

Pediatric functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) frequently persist into adulthood, thus developmental considerations are critical for monitoring symptom presentation and tailoring treatments. In addition to core symptoms, such as pain and gastrointestinal symptoms, mood and anxiety symptoms often co-occur as well as negative impacts on functioning and quality of life. The current study took a developmental approach to assess core pain, gastrointestinal, anxiety, and mood symptoms among youth with FAPDs (N = 105), as well as agreement across youth and their caregivers on these key symptoms. Developmental stages included early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. A cluster analysis was conducted to determine the most common pain and gastrointestinal symptoms among adolescents. Further, youth from middle childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood were compared on reported quality of life; and early childhood, middle childhood, adolescent, and emerging adulthood groups were compared on anxiety and depressive symptoms. Findings suggest that symptoms, specifically pain, change across childhood; youth in middle childhood (M = 6.21, SD = 3.14) reported the greatest pain with early childhood endorsing the lowest (M = 3.83, SD = 3.06). Adolescents presented with the greatest GI symptom burden (M = 53.90, SD = 19.38); however, within the adolescent group two subtypes emerged that placed youth into groups that were characterized by significantly different levels of worse (M = 33.41, SD = 13.78) versus better functioning (M = 62.16, SD = 10.50) (t(36) = 7.25, p < 0.001). Lastly, standardized difference scores were used to determine the level of agreement among middle childhood and adolescent parent-child dyads on reported pain, gastrointestinal, anxiety, and mood symptoms. Youth in middle childhood tended to have greater agreement with their caregivers, with greater counts of youth-caregiver dyads falling to better agreement (0-1 standard deviation). These findings provide initial insight into how FAPDs progress over childhood, indicating that symptoms vary across age groups and adolescents have the greatest symptom burden, including less agreement with their caregivers on key symptoms.

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