Predictors of affective responses of mothers and fathers of children with cancer

We investigated predictors of affective responses for 125 parents (77 mothe rs, 48 fathers) of children with various types of cancer who varied in time of diagnosis from newly diagnosed to 13 years following cancer treatment. The primary rationale of the investigation was to deter-mine whether cognit ive appraisals, perceived social supports, and caregivers' perceptions of c hildren's behavior would predict affective responses differentially for mot hers and fathers. We defined affectivity as self-reported depressive sympto ms, and state and trait anxiety symptoms. Parents did not differ on any of the variables, including affective responses, although differential predict ors of affective responses were revealed for mothers and fathers. Affiliati on-related attributions were associated with affective responses for mother s, and achievement-related attributions and perceived social support were a ssociated with affective responses for fathers. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wil ey & Sons, Ltd.