1. REFERENCES AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Hope and Resilience in Caregivers and Families of Children with Chronic Illnesses Laura Nabors1, Ashley Merianos1, Angelica Hardee1, R. Andrew Yockey2, & Shawna Southwick Fox1 1Health Promotion and Education Program, University of Cincinnati 2Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati
DISCUSSION
INTRODUCTION
RESULTS
Study Purpose:
Understand factors contributing to caregiver feelings of hope and family resilience in children with chronic illnesses can positively impact caregivers’ and children’s mental health and coping.
Interviews with family members were completed to examine parental perceptions of child hope, family hope, and coping.
Parents also completed a resilience measure to assess family coping.
Coping Scale:
Scores on the Family Coping Scale were between The mean score was 112 (SD=15).
Regression Analysis:
A regression analysis was used to determine the relationship among child factors, hospital experiences and family coping.
Child factors were: sex, ethnic group, and age.
Hospital experiences factors were: whether the child had positive or negative hospital experiences.
None of the predictors had a significant relationship with family coping.
Interviews:
Parents who completed interviews reported that social support, especially from family and religion, served as key sources of hope.
Additionally, they stated knowing that other children in the family were with family and that the family was financially secure helped them to focus on being a source of strength for their child.
A positive outlook for the future, on the part of the parents and their child, were also viewed as sources of strength.
Caregiver responses indicated high resilience within the family during a very stressful period.
A child’s spirit and support from siblings were important.
Some siblings were supported by their brother or sister who made them a blog. This allowed others to communicate with and follow the child’s progress.
When hope was lost and children wanted to join other family members in Heaven, the child was less likely to fight his/her terminal illness. Hope was love and caring, support from family, doctors and a higher power.
Findings indicated that…
Parents believed children and families were coping well.
They believed that support was vital, in terms of support from siblings, family and religion.
Responses on the survey were consistent with resilient functioning in families.
However, if children stopped showing interest in support, it was an indicator that the child was losing hope, in parents’ eyes.
Limitation of this study: data were based on parent- report; more objective measures may have yielded different information.
Further information from in-depth interviews may yield more information about child resilience and how support bolsters a child who is facing a chronic illness.
Study results have implications for positive psychology, showing that families move in a strength-based direction.
If the child also is spirited and finding ways to hope for the best and being “well” in the future, a positive cycle ensues where positives reinforce each other strengthening both the child, parents, and the family unit.
METHOD
Participants:
Our institutional review board and another review board approved this study.
45 parents were approached to complete surveys.
44 were successfully completed.
6 parents completed in-depth interviews to assess family resilience and reasons for positive child coping and hope.
1 sibling also completed an in-depth interview to assess family coping and hope.
Measures and Procedures:
Caregivers/parents were residing at a Ronald McDonald House while their child was undergoing a medical procedure. This presentation reviews information from a mixed-methods study where interviews and a survey were used to assess views of coping for the family, themselves, and their child.
Parents completed an Information Form providing information about their child as well as the F-COPES scale (see reference section) to assess family coping.
A small group of parents completed interviews.
REFERENCES AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
McCubbin, H., Larson, A., & Olson, D. (1987). F-COPES Family Crisis Oriented Personal Scales. In H. McCubbin & A. Thompson (Eds.), Family assessment inventories for research and practice. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, Madison.
For additional information please contact Dr. Laura Nabors at
The authors would like to thank the Ronald McDonald House and parents for their support of this project.