Relationships among self-esteem, ego-resilience, and caregiver burden among families of children with hematologic and oncologic disease: A cross-sectional study ^☆

Abstract

Background

Pediatric hematology and oncology disease is a physically and emotionally demanding health condition for families. High self-esteem and ego-resilience among caregivers, which have recently gained increased recognition, might help ease caregiver burdens. Few studies, however, have simultaneously investigated the relationships between self-esteem, ego-resilience, and caregiver burden among caregivers of children with hematologic and oncologic disease.

Objective

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between caregiver burden, self-esteem, and ego-resilience and examine whether ego-resilience plays a role in mediating the relationship between self-esteem and caregiver burden among family caregivers of children with hematologic and oncologic disease.

Design

Descriptive correlational study.

Setting

The outpatient clinic of the department of pediatric hematology and oncology at a flagship university hospital in a metropolitan city in South Korea.

Participants

The sample comprised 109 primary family caregivers of children with hematologic and oncologic disease. Convenience sampling method was used.

Methods

The participants completed the Ego-Resiliency Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Family Burden Questionnaire. One-way analysis of variance, independent t-tests, and correlation analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS 25.0. The mediating effect of ego-resilience was estimated using the PROCESS macro and bootstrap method in SPSS.

Results

Caregiver burden showed significant negative associations with self-esteem and ego-resilience, with moderate effect sizes (r = −.391 and −0.361, respectively, p = .001). Ego-resilience mediated the relationship between self-esteem and caregiver burden (b = −0.019; 95 % bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval −0.035 and −0.001).

Conclusions

Self-esteem and ego-resilience may lessen caregiver burden among families of children with hematologic and oncologic disease, and self-esteem of caregivers tends to promote their ego-resilience. Therefore, self-esteem and ego-resilience should be improved among family caregivers to reduce their caregiver burden.