Congress Abstracts 2004

162

BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL IMPACT OF PARENTAL CANCER ON SCHOOLAGERS. Ying-hwa Su, PhD(c), MS, RN, and Nancy Ryan Wenger, PhD, RN, CPNP, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. In 1998, approximately 128,089 children had a parent diagnosed with cancer. Parental cancer may be a pervasive stressful event for children, but the impact on children is largely unrecognized. Most research on children’s adjustment to parental cancer lacks a theoretical basis and appropriate comparison groups. How children cope with parental cancer and the effectiveness of their coping strategies is unknown. Other variables that may mediate or moderate children’s responses are rarely analyzed. Differences between children’s and parents’ perceptions of this phenomenon need to be examined as well.

The purpose is to characterize the stress-coping process of children ages 7–12 who have a parent with cancer. Findings will be compared to similar measures from previous research on children who have encountered stressful events other than parental cancer.

This study is based on an integration of Lazarus’s cognitive appraisal theory of stress and coping, cognitive developmental theory, social/emotional developmental theory, and physiologic stress response theory.

Power analysis indicates that a sample of 37 children is needed for this descriptive, cross-sectional design. Children will be recruited from a university support group, an oncology clinic, and the general clinical research center. Instruments completed by parents include a demographic data form, the Child Behavior Checklist/4–18, and the Family Peer Relationship Questionnaire. Children will complete the Family Peer Relationship Questionnaire, Feel Bad Scale (concurrent stressors), Schoolagers’ Coping Strategies Inventory, Children’s Stress Symptom Scale, and a human figure drawing. Also, a morning salivary sample will be analyzed for cortisol levels. The reliability and validity of all instruments used in this study are well established.

Analysis will include descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Meta and canonical correlations to examine relationships, MANOVA for mediator and moderator analysis, and t-tests to compare groups.

Findings will increase our understanding of this pervasive stressor in some children’s lives and will help to identify healthcare outcomes that are amenable to nursing interventions.