Parents of Children With Cancer: At-Risk or Resilient?

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Abstract

Objective To examine adjustment in parents of children with cancer using a design that minimizes focusing effects and allows for direct comparison with parents of healthy children. Method Parents of 305 children with cancer and a demographically similar sample of 231 parents of healthy children were evaluated using diagnostic interviews for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and questionnaire measures of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and psychological growth (PG), as well as measures of global psychological functioning. Results Rates of current and lifetime PTSD in parents of children with cancer were low, and did not differ from comparison parents. Likewise, levels of PTSS were not significantly different from comparison parents, but differed as a function of time since diagnosis, with parents of children who were ≥5 years from diagnosis reporting significantly lower PTSS than comparison parents. PG was higher in parents of children with cancer than in comparison parents regardless of time since diagnosis. Conclusion Parents of children with cancer demonstrate resilience to this challenge.

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Resilience to loss and potential trauma.

George Bonanno, Maren Westphal, Anthony Mancini (2011)

Initial research on loss and potentially traumatic events (PTEs) has been dominated by either a psychopathological approach emphasizing individual dysfunction or an event approach emphasizing average differences between exposed and nonexposed groups. We consider the limitations of these approaches and review more recent research that has focused on the heterogeneity of outcomes following aversive events. Using both traditional analytic tools and sophisticated latent trajectory modeling, this research has identified a set of prototypical outcome patterns. Typically, the most common outcome following PTEs is a stable trajectory of healthy functioning or resilience. We review research showing that resilience is not the result of a few dominant factors, but rather that there are multiple independent predictors of resilient outcomes. Finally, we critically evaluate the question of whether resilience-building interventions can actually make people more resilient, and we close with suggestions for future research on resilience. © 2011 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved

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Would you be happier if you were richer? A focusing illusion.

Daniel Kahneman, Alan Krueger, David Schkade … (2006)

The belief that high income is associated with good mood is widespread but mostly illusory. People with above-average income are relatively satisfied with their lives but are barely happier than others in moment-to-moment experience, tend to be more tense, and do not spend more time in particularly enjoyable activities. Moreover, the effect of income on life satisfaction seems to be transient. We argue that people exaggerate the contribution of income to happiness because they focus, in part, on conventional achievements when evaluating their life or the lives of others.