Brief report: Parents of children undergoing bone marrow transplantation: Documenting stress and piloting a psychological intervention program

Objective: To document levels of stress in parents of children undergoing b one marrow transplantation (BMT) over the course of hospitalization and to pilot a psychological intervention program designed to teach parents techni ques for managing stress associated with their child's illness and hospital ization. Methods: Twenty-two mothers of children (ages 2-16) undergoing BMT were fol lowed prospectively from preadmission to three weeks posttransplant. Eleven mothers, randomly assigned to participate in a pilot intervention program, were compared with 11 control mothers receiving standard care preparation of their child's BMT. Results: Repeated measures ANOVAs detected significant changes in stress ov er time, with most stress reported preadmission. Mothers in the 'interventi on condition reported using more stress management techniques than mothers in the standard care condition, though the majority of analyses revealed no significant differences in stress between groups. Conclusions: Increased levels of parenting distress may occur pretransplant , suggesting the need for additional psychological intervention at that tim e.