Coping with pediatric cancer: the importance of family member coping on the outcomes of other members

Abstract

<p>This study investigated the relations across time between stressful life events, coping, and mental and physical health symptoms among families of pediatric cancer patients. Coping was measured both in the form of self report and through assessing the perceptions each family member held regarding the coping of other family members. The results of this study showed that the relations between predictor and outcome measures differed significantly across the four groups of participants: Cancer patients, siblings, mothers, and fathers. In general, the coping of parents was a better predictor of child outcomes than was the self reported coping of the children. Parent results showed that the coping efforts of their partner and their children both predicted parent outcomes. The relations between stressful life events and outcomes also differed for the four different groups. The author suggests that coping researchers would be well advised to investigate the coping of all members of a family, especially when studying stressful events that require a response from all family members.</p>