Rg. Steele et al., THE ROLE OF FAMILY PROCESSES AND COPING STRATEGIES IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTAL CHRONIC ILLNESS AND CHILDHOOD INTERNALIZING PROBLEMS, Journal of abnormal child psychology, 25(2), 1997, pp. 83-94
Sixty-nine families (father, mother, and one child) in which the fathe
r had hemophilia, approximately half of whom were HIV positive, were a
ssessed in an examination of the relationship between parental chronic
illness, family functioning, child coping strategies, and child adjus
tment. Latent variable path analyses with partial least-squares estima
tion procedures (PLS) were used to test a model of the relationship be
tween parental chronic illness, family process variables, child coping
strategies, and child internalizing behavior problems. The severity o
f the father's illness predicted family process variables, which predi
cted the coping style of the child. The use of more avoidant coping st
rategies was associated with more internalizing problems.