Development and validation of the parent experience of child illness
Family; Parents; PedPal Lit; Caregiver; Child Illness
Objective To develop a measure of parent adjustment related to caring for a child with achronic illness and to evaluate the reliability and validity of the measure with a group of parentsof children with brain tumors. Methods One-hundred forty-nine parents of patients(age <1–17 years) diagnosed with a brain tumor were assessed using the 25-item self-reportParent Experience of Child Illness (PECI). Internal consistency, construct validity, and factorstructure were assessed. Results Exploratory factor analysis yielded four theoreticallycoherent factors including: Guilt and Worry, Emotional Resources, Unresolved Sorrowand Anger, and Long-term Uncertainty. Internal reliability for the PECI scales ranged from.72 to .89, suggesting acceptable reliability. As evidence of construct validity, the PECI scalesshow significant, positive correlations with scales from established measures of parentadjustment. Conclusion The PECI augments the current literature by providing a briefmeasure of parents’ subjective distress and perceived Emotional Resources, domains that arecritical but understudied in children with chronic illness and their caregivers.
2005
Bonner MJ; Hardy KK; Guill AB; McLaughlin C; Schweitzer H; Carter K
Journal of Pediatric Psychology
2005
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsj034" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1093/jpepsy/jsj034</a>
Brief report: psychosocial functioning of fathers as primary caregivers of pediatric oncology patients
Child; Humans; Male; Adult; Questionnaires; Social Adjustment; Psychology; Stress; Social Behavior; Psychological/diagnosis/epidemiology/psychology; Caregivers/statistics & numerical data; Disabled Children/statistics & numerical data; father experience; Fathers/psychology/statistics & numerical data; Neoplasms/epidemiology
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the psychosocial functioning of fathers as primary caregivers of pediatric oncology patients. METHODS: Fathers who identified themselves as the primary medical caregivers were given a packet of questionnaires, including the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), the Impact of Event Scale (IES), the Impact on Family Scale (IFS), the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ), and the Parent Experience of Child Illness (PECI) scale, to complete and return by mail. The 23 fathers who returned the questionnaire packets were compared with 23 mothers who were matched on demographic variables. RESULTS: There were no differences between groups on self-report measures of distress or illness-related parenting stress. Descriptively, however, the majority of parents were above normative means on measures of psychological distress with a significantly greater proportion of fathers endorsing elevated levels of depression on the BSI. CONCLUSION: Including fathers in pediatric psychosocial research is important and represents a growing trend in psycho-oncology.
2007
Bonner MJ; Hardy KK; Willard VW; Hutchinson KC
Journal of Pediatric Psychology
2007
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsm011" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1093/jpepsy/jsm011</a>