The overall objective of this study is to identify the impact of a child's transplant on the family. More specifically, this study aims to answer the following questions: (1) What are the patterns of change in stress, coping, resources, severity of the stressor and family adaptation from the pre-transplantation period to the post-transplantation period in the longitudinal cohort, (2) What is the relationship between family adaptation and each of the predictor variables of stress, coping, and severity of the stressor during the pre-transplantation and post-transplantation periods of the transplant process, and (3) What are the differences in stress, coping resources, severity of the stressor and family adaptation during the transplantation periods? This knowledge will eventually lead to the development and testing of nursing interventions to meet the identified needs. In order to accomplish this goal, the specific aim of this study is to determine the impact of the a child's transplant on the family during the pre-transplant, short term and long term post-transplant periods. The Double ABC-X model of family adaptation will provide the conceptual framework of this cross-sectional comparative design with a longitudinal cohort. Stress, coping, resources, severity of the stressor and family adaptation will be measured. Data will be collected suing the McMaster Family Assessment Device, Family Inventory of Life Events, Coping Health Inventory for Parents, Family Coherence Index, and the Family Inventory of Resource Management. Data will be collected from the cross-sectional groups as follows: Group I- pre-transplantation, Group II- >3 months and ,1 year post-transplantation hospital discharge and Group III- > 1 year post-transplantation hospital discharge. The longitudinal group's pre-transplant period data is available and will be compared with this group's long term post-transplant data (> 4 years post-transplantation). Data will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
