Chronic Diseases in Children as a Challenge for Parenting

Abstract

To be a parent or a caregiver in a modern society is a very difficult task, including multiple demands and expectations. Parenting imposes a special role in the life of any couple, especially for the mother, roles which must be learned through personal education, enriched by transgenerational experience. Chronic disease is recognized as a large stressor that affects the current situation of a child and a child's family. In this difficult situation, the family must go through a process of learning how to cope with it. In the family, where a child has a long-term health problem, there are certain behaviours that hinder the normal functioning of family relationships. According to the experience of many researchers, including my own, there is an indication that a child's illness often leads to the divorce of the parents. The fathers of sick children are often the initiators of such decisions. The purpose of this article was to find if there are differences in parenting between mothers and fathers of chronically ill children. The methodology is comprised of a review of published articles in PubMed over the last two decades related to parenting when there is chronic illness in children. More than 500 articles related to the topic were found. Obtained results were discussed.