Preliminary Development of the Food Allergy Coping and Emotions Questionnaires for Children, Adolescents, and Young People: Qualitative Analysis of Data on IgE-Mediated Food Allergy from Five Countries

Publication date: March–April 2018
Source:The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, Volume 6, Issue 2
Author(s): Audrey DunnGalvin, Laura Polloni, Jennifer Le Bovidge, Antonella Muraro, Matthew Greenhawt, Steve Taylor, Joseph Baumert, Wesley Burks, Anna Trace, Gillian DunnGalvin, Lisa Forristal, Laura McGrath, Jennifer White, Marta Vasquez, Katrina Allen, Aziz Sheikh, Jonathan Hourihane, Mimi L.K. Tang
BackgroundWe have previously developed a food allergy–specific developmental model, that explained emotions and coping styles, among children aged 6 to 15years in Ireland.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to investigate the usefulness of the developmental model in a large multicountry data set, including any mediators of coping style, and to use the findings to generate an item pool that will form the basis for 3 age-appropriate self-report questionnaires to measure coping and emotions.MethodsWe conducted deductive thematic analysis on secondary data from interviews with 274 participants aged 6 to 23 years, and 119 parents from Australia, Ireland, Italy, the UK, and the USA. Analysis was undertaken across the entire data set.ResultsThe Food Allergy Coping and Emotions (FACE) model has 5 major themes: (1) experiences and emotions, (2) search for normality, (3) management and coping, (4) "external mediators," and (5) "internal mediators" (between emotions and coping). These themes were present across countries, but differed according to age.ConclusionsEarly-life experiences provide the foundation for later cognitions and behaviors. The expanded FACE developmental model is useful in explaining emotions and coping styles across different age groups and countries. These data will also be used to generate an age-specific bank of items for the development of 3 (age-specific self-report, and parent proxy) questionnaires to assess emotions and coping in food allergy. Findings provide insight into how particular styles of coping develop and vary from patient to patient and may also guide clinician-patient communication and the development of individualized management strategies.