Social problem solving and community integration in postacute rehabilitation outpatients with traumatic brain injury.

Abstract

Objective: To enhance understanding of the role that social problem solving (SPS) plays in communityintegration following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Study Design: Regression analysis. Participants:Forty-five adults with TBI participating in higher level outpatient cognitive rehabilitation and 15uninjured adults. Main Outcome Measures: Measures of community integration, problem-solvingability, and SPS self-appraisal and performance. Results: Individuals with TBI demonstrated poorerproblem-solving as measured by both neuropsychological and SPS methods; however, the largest effectsize was observed for SPS self-appraisal. Only SPS self-appraisal predicted a significant proportion of thevariance in community integration. Conclusions: It is important to assess brain-injured persons’ confi-dence in their ability to cope with problems. A focus on objective test scores alone may lead tounderdetection of disabling problem-solving deficits.