Abstract
A child’s illness and hospitalization are particularly difficult and most often an unpredictable situation in a family’s life cycle. The level of stress of a parent of a hospitalized child depends on many factors, such as the psychological characteristics of the child and the parent, the child’s health condition, and support from the family and medical staff. Our research aimed to search for interactions between the stress experienced by the parent and the temperamental variables of both the child and the parent, and the support received from the family and hospital staff. Using three pencil-paper questionnaires—PSS, EAS-D, EAS-C—and interview questionnaire, we tested 203 parent–child dyads at the time of children hospitalization. It was revealed that the most notable moderator of the relationship between temperamental traits and the characteristics of the hospital-related situation is the child’s age. When analyzing the situation of a family with a hospitalized child, particular attention should be paid to parental emotional distress, which, regardless of the child’s age, predicts a high level of parental stress.
Highlights
The hospitalization of a child is a highly stressful experience for both the parents and their child
Important predictors of the well-being of the parents and their child in this difficult situation for the family include the quality of communication concerning the first factor, mainly in the area of feedback and the possibility of participating in childcare [1,2], and the characteristics of styles of coping with stress, emotionality, and temperamental conditions concerning the second factor
Many parents experience high levels of stress when their child is hospitalized [3], and research in this area often focus on specific groups of children, such as children with cancer [4,5], infants with low birth weight [6], or specific hospital experiences such as intensive care unit stay [7] or cardiac surgery [8]
Summary
The hospitalization of a child is a highly stressful experience for both the parents and their child. An important role during the child’s stay in hospital is played by the support of the medical staff and the psychological characteristics of the child and the parents, as well as the relationship between them. Important predictors of the well-being of the parents and their child in this difficult situation for the family include the quality of communication concerning the first factor (staff support), mainly in the area of feedback and the possibility of participating in childcare [1,2], and the characteristics of styles of coping with stress, emotionality, and temperamental conditions concerning the second factor. The analysis of the way parents and children react to their stay in a hospital requires taking into account personal factors, such as temperamental conditions or styles of coping with stress and the perspective of the family system. We can identify three types of determinants: the individual characteristics of the child, the individual characteristics of the parents, and the interaction of these factors from the
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