Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology

First Advisor

Leihua Edstrom PhD, ABSNP

Second Advisor

Glena Andrews, PhD, ABPP, MSCP

Third Advisor

Lynn K. Paul, PhD

Abstract

In March 2020 the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was determined to be a global health crisis (Lee et al., 2021). As the virus continued to spread rapidly, individuals had to adjust their daily routines to reduce disease transmission. Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (AgCC) is a broad term used when there is a presence of congenital brain malformation in the region of the brain responsible for transmitting information to both left and right hemispheres (Paul, 2011). Evaluation of individuals with AgCC have been observed to demonstrate specific deficits including cognitive efficiency, transfer of sensory-motor information, and complex reasoning (Brown & Paul, 2019; Mangum, 2018; Miller et al., 2018) although evolve over time (Badderudin et al. 2007; Paul et al., 2007). Developmental evaluations have demonstrated generalized delays in individuals ranging from age 2-16 years, when compared to those without AgCC (Eddy, 2022). The purpose of this study was to discover whether adaptive development in children aged 6 through 13 years varied based on parent reported Major Life Events (MLE) and COVID-19 pandemic related change. A total of 30 parents of a child with a confirmed anatomic diagnosis of AgCC completed the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Third Edition in addition to the MLE and/or COVID-19 questionnaire. Results of the retrospective cross-sectional study showed generalized delays across all developmental domains compared to the normative sample. In the communication domain, delays were found to be more apparent when parent-reported stress and impact was also elevated. COVID-19 related change was also identified in the areas of reduced in-person social interaction, delivery of education, and increased parent responsibility. This study broadly identified environmental events as identifiable developmental risk factors.

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