POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS AFTER CHILDHOOD-CANCER .2. A FAMILY MODEL

Citation
Ml. Stuber et al., POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS AFTER CHILDHOOD-CANCER .2. A FAMILY MODEL, Psycho-oncology, 3(4), 1994, pp. 313-319
Citations number
24
Categorie Soggetti
Psychology,"Social Sciences, Biomedical
Journal title
ISSN journal
10579249
Volume
3
Issue
4
Year of publication
1994
Pages
313 - 319
Database
ISI
SICI code
1057-9249(1994)3:4<313:PSAC.A>2.0.ZU;2-C
Abstract
Recent studies have suggested that parental responses to pediatric can cer can include symptoms of post-traumatic stress even years after the end of successful treatment. This paper proposes a family model, base d on data about the relationship between post-traumatic stress symptom s in parents of cancer survivors and the child's perceptions, symptoms and treatment. Parents of 30 childhood cancer survivors 8-19 years ol d, who were at least 22 months off treatment and disease free after a malignancy, were evaluated using self-report questionnaires. Neither d iagnostic category (leukemia versus solid tumor), nor time since compl etion of treatment significantly correlated with severity of post-trau matic stress symptoms reported by parents. Although there was a signif icant correlation between symptom severity of mothers and fathers, nei ther mothers nor fathers' scores were significantly correlated with th e survivors'. Maternal symptoms were significantly correlated with mot hers' trait anxiety, survivors' appraisal of treatment intensity, and with duration of treatment. Further study of the interaction of family variables in parental post-traumatic response to pediatric illness ap pears to be indicated.