Family Psycho-Social Factors Impacting Parents Current Life Own Perception in Families of Children with Leukemia during their First Hospitalization

Background: It has been repeatedly shown that social support seems to be a key factor in dealing with experience of pediatric cancer diagnosis and treatment. Studies have showed that lack of perceived social support is associated with increased risk for development of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Previous research has failed to report statistically significant correlations between parental coping and the sociodemographic and illness-related variables it examined. Aim: This study aims to explore what happens to the parent’s current life own perception in relation to child’s disease factors and to family psycho-social factors in the second week after the diagnosis communication. Method: Patients were 118 leukemic children and their families recruited at the Haematology-Oncologic Clinic of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Padova. All parents were Caucasian with a mean age of 37.39 years (SD = 6.03). Most parents had 13 years of school (50.8%); 32.2% had 8 years; 5.9% had college education; 9.3% had degree or diploma and 1.7% had 5 years of school. The parents who participated were mostly mothers (N = 101) and only a few were fathers (N = 17) because the mothers were more proximal to the child during hospitalization while fathers stayed with other siblings or continued to work to maintain the family. Children’s mean age was 5.89 years (SD = 4.21, range = 1 year-17 years). Mostly children had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) (N = 98), while 20 had Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). The families were contacted by a clinical psychologist during the first hospitalization of their children. Project aims were explained and informed consent was asked for. The parents were interviewed in a separate room of the Clinic adopting Ecocultural Family Interview-Cancer (Tremolada et al., 2005) from which we derived 8 family Psycho-Social Factors (including Social Support) and the Life Stress Events. The Ladder of Life (CCSS) and SES questionnaires were compiled by parents during the child’s first hospitalization. Results: Life perception was really low at this time, even if there was a big standard deviation that underlined the variability of parent’s emotive state. A hierarchical regression model identified Child’s Diagnosis, Child’s Age, Parent’s Age and Social Support as factors that impacted upon parents’ Current Life Perception. Discussion: Child’s diagnosis, child’s age, parent’s age and social support impact upon parents’ current life perceptions. In detail, parents of children with AML perceive a worse life than parents of children with ALL. The increasing age of the child is positively associated with her/his evolutionary coping strategies so to help parents in their caregiver role. At this purpose we may also discuss that older parents can have more experience to care for children and that they can be more “expert” in their parenting role in this difficult time. Finally, social support is confirmed as a valid resource to help parents coping with the child’s illness, especially in this acute time.