Janet Hankins Amy Peterson Wayne State University
Childhood cancer is one of modern medicine's greatest success stories, with children surviving the disease at unprecedented rates. While treatment is often successful at eradicating the disease, the diagnosis and on-going treatment of pediatric cancer is major stressor for children and their parents. Treatment can last from several weeks to several years, and include repeated needle sticks and invasive and painful medical procedures. One potential way to buffer the distress of childhood cancer is through social support. Social support is the "emotional support, the provision of aid and security during times of stress that leads a person to feel she or he is care for by others." Abundant evidence exists indicating the benefits of social support in alleviating stress, facilitating coping, and enhancing health and medical outcomes.
This dissertation research studies the role of social support in alleviating both child and parental distress and enhancing child cooperation during cancer-related medical procedures. Data will be analyzed from a National Institutes of Health study on "Resources, Parent-Child Communication and Adjustment to Pediatric Cancer." These data include self-report measures of social support including self-reports of both parent and child distress and child cooperation. Transcripts of video-recorded interactions in which a child undergoes a cancer-related medical procedure will be coded and analyzed for social support communication. The research will examine differences between self-reported social support and observed social support and will investigate the type of social support associated with decreased child and parent distress and increased child cooperation during medical procedures.
Broader Impact
This research will increase our current understanding of the role that social support plays during children's medical procedures and the process by which support alleviates child and parent distress and increases child cooperation. The broader impact of the research has the potential to improve the treatment of children being treated for cancer, as well as treatment for children undergoing treatment for other chronic diseases; the identification of successful social support methods will benefit both children and their parents. Results from this study will inform our understanding of how to better assist families whose children are subjected to frequent and distressing medical procedures. While the social support literature is vast, there is little research using observational data in which naturally occurring behavior can be coded and analyzed. This study provides the opportunity to examine social support behavior in an innovative and meaningful way and develop methods to coach parents as to which techniques are likely to reduce their distress and that of their children.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE The study examined the relationship between social support and parent/child communication during treatment sessions for pediatric cancer. It explored whether social support and communication decreased the children's distress levels during the treatment procedures. The research analyzed whether social support and certain types of parent/child communication increased cooperation for children undergoing treatment for cancer. Social support is verbal and nonverbal communication during these stressful situations that help the family manage the treatment for cancer. A total of 104 children aged 3-12 undergoing lumbar punctures, bone marrow aspirations, port starts, intramuscular injections, and IV starts were included in the study. Videotapes were taken during the procedures, systematically coded, and analyzed to see what type of parental actions and statements decreased parent and child distress and what behaviors increased the child's cooperation with the procedures. The level of social support available to the family was also measured. Preliminary results show that parents who report having more social support are less distressed, and have children who are less distressed, during procedures. The parental interactions with the child were coded as 1) supportive (parent offered comfort or empathy), 2) normalizing (parent read or played games with the child or talked about non-medical topics) or 3) invalidating (parent denied the child's distress or urged them "don't be a baby"). Early results indicate that parents who adopt a supportive or normalizing communication pattern with their children during procedures have children who are less distressed. On the other hand, parents who use an invalidating communication pattern have children who are more distressed during procedures. These results suggest strategies that hospitals can use to help both parents and children cope with stressful treatments for pediatric cancer. Education programs can be developed to teach parents the best way to help reduce their child's stress levels and increase the child's cooperation with the invasive procedures that occur during the course of cancer treatment. Strategies can be created to increase the level of social support provided to the family that can decrease the distress associated with treatment for childhood cancer for both the parent and child.
