Longitudinal Evaluations of Psychological Distress in Parents of Children with Malignancies
- 1 March 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Acta Paediatrica
- Vol. 75 (2), 283-288
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.1986.tb10200.x
Abstract
The authors evaluated the psychological distress in 41 parents of children with acute lymphocytic leukaemia or with Hodgkin''s disease using the Symptom Distress Checklist (SCL-90). The subjects were tested three times: within the first few days after the child''s admission to hospital and 8 months and 20 months later. The experimental population was compared with a control group of 25 subjects matched for age, sex, marital status and social class. At the first evaluation the experimental group had higher mean scores than the controls for obsession, depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances. Seventy-eight% of the subjects (65.8% excluding the sleep disturbances (SlDi) subscale) scored moderate distress on at least one of the SCL-90 subscales. The 8 month and 20 month follow-ups confirmed the presence of high scores of psychological distress particularly in the sleep disturbances and depression subscales, with 78% (58.4% excluding SlDi) and 82.3% (70% excluding SlDi) of the subjects gaining scores of moderate distress in at least one of the subscales of the SCL-90.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Psychological distress in parents of children with acute lymphatic leukemiaActa Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1983
- Psychosocial aspects of pediatric leukemia: From diagnosis through the first six months of treatmentMedical and Pediatric Oncology, 1983
- Konzept zur Ganzheitsbetreuung von Familien leukämie- und tumor-kranker Kinder, basierend auf Gesprächen mit den ElternOncology Research and Treatment, 1982
- The SCL-90 and the MMPI: A Step in the Validation of a New Self-Report ScaleThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1976
- Psychiatric Symptomatology Among Hospitalized Cancer PatientsAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 1974