Adjustment responses of children and their mothers to cancer: self-care and anxiety.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To examine children's and their mothers' adjustment responses (self-care and anxiety) to cancer.

DESIGN

A descriptive multivariate study.

SETTING

Two metropolitan pediatric oncology clinics.

SAMPLE

A nonprobability sample of 74.9-18 year olds diagnosed with cancer and their mothers.

METHOD

Children completed two questionnaires--the Children's Self-Care Performance Questionnaire and Children's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Mothers completed the Dependent Care Agent Performance Questionnaire, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and a demographic data form.

FINDINGS

Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that children off therapy and their mothers had better adjustment responses than those on therapy. Basic conditioning factors significantly predicted children's self-care practices and state and trait anxiety as well as mothers' dependent-care and state anxiety. A significant canonical correlation surfaced between the set of children's adjustment responses and the set of mothers' adjustment responses.

CONCLUSIONS

Children who have completed treatment for cancer and their mothers have better adjustment responses than those still receiving therapy. Basic conditioning factors predict adjustment responses, and a relationship exists between the adjustment responses of children and those of their mothers.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE

Further research is needed to investigate children's self-care practices, determine mothers' dependent-care practices, and compare children with cancer to a normative sample. In clinical practice nurses must consider the profound effect of cancer on the mother and child the anxiety levels of children with cancer and their mothers, and the influence of these individuals on each other.