This study highlights the importance of identifying and addressing parenting concerns to alleviate patient distress, and it may help to guide future intervention efforts.
READ FULL ARTICLE
From Wiley Online Library
Patients with younger children experience declines in parenting efficacy beliefs
the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:
According to a new study published online ahead of print in the journal Cancer, researchers have found that patients with cancer that are parents to children 18 years old or younger experience declines in their parenting efficacy beliefs and an increase in parenting concerns.
For the study, researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Division of Pediatric Psychosocial Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, surveyed 194 adult oncology outpatients with children aged 18 years or younger.
Participants completed questionnaires evaluating their health-related quality of life, overall distress, parenting efficacy beliefs and parenting concerns, and depression and anxiety symptoms.
Results showed that parenting efficacy scores for parents and coparents decreased significantly following cancer diagnosis.
Researchers found that declines in parenting efficacy beliefs correlated with parental concerns surrounding children's emotional distress about aspects of the parent's health.
The findings suggest that it is important to identify and address parenting concerns in order to reduce patient distress.
