Abstract
A chronic illness in childhood has a negative impact on the paediatric patient and on family functioning. Psychological stress in parents influences the level of adjustment to the illness of their children. The Pediatric Inventory for Parents (PIP) was designed to measure stress in parents whose child has a chronic illness or requires prolonged medical monitoring. The main objective of this study is to provide a brief version of the Spanish translation of the PIP, across a sample consisting of 465 main familial caregivers (85.2% female, n = 396) between 27 and 67 years old ( = 44.13; SD = 5.35) of paediatric patients between 9 and 18 years old ( = 12.10, SD = 2.20; 56.8% men, n = 264) diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type I (20.9% of the sample; n = 97), short stature (32.5% of the sample; n = 151), or a chronic respiratory disease (asthma, cystic fibrosis, bronchiolitis obliterans and bronchiectasis) (46.6% of the sample; n = 217). After performing several EFAs (Exploratory Factor Analyses) and CFAs (Confirmatory Factorial Analyses), it was decided that 30 items need to be removed. Reliability and validity results suggest that the new 12-item version possesses appropriate psychometric properties. Cronbach’s alpha value ranging between α = .42 and α = .81 and fit values obtained indicate a good fit: χ2/df (88.393/48) = 1.84 (α < .01); S-B χ2(df) = 88.393 (48); CFI = .95; IFI = .95; RMSEA = .05 (.033 - .074) for the frequency scales and χ2/df (72.002/48) = 1.5 (α < .01); S-Bχ2(df) = 72.002 (48); CFI = .97; IFI = .97; RMSEA = .04 (.011 - .063) for the difficulty scales. The PIP also showed predictive ability in regards to anxiety and depression, a positive relationship between the instrument's own scales and a negative relationship with the caregiver's age. Finally, depending on the paediatric patient's diagnosis, differences in stress levels were found.
Highlights
Chronic childhood illnesses have a negative impact on the paediatric patient, on his or her parents, on family functioning and on medical services [1,2,3]
Given the importance of detecting caregiver stress to avoid the overload that is caused by care, it is paramount to facilitate the use of PIP in clinical practice. For this and the above reasons, the objective of this study is to provide a brief version of the validated Spanish translation and by Del Rincon, Remor and Arranz [35] of the Pediatric Inventory for Parents (PIP) across a sample of diverse pathologies (DM1, short stature (SS) and chronic respiratory diseases), while using a robust methodology and seeking to ascertain their relationship with anxiety and depression (HADS) [44]
The only participants included in the study were those who agreed to participate and who were the caregivers of paediatric patients between 9 and 18 years old who had been diagnosed at least 6 months prior to the study
Summary
Chronic childhood illnesses have a negative impact on the paediatric patient, on his or her parents, on family functioning and on medical services [1,2,3]. Their incidence is increasing and they currently affect between 10% and 20% of children [4]. Various studies have shown a link between high levels of parental stress and the need to provide care to a chronically ill child [2,5]. It is important to pay attention to the caregiver’s adjustment to his or her child’s diagnosis, as inappropriate parental behaviors have been observed to influence the patient’s symptoms. [11]
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