Parental Perceptions of Childhood Cancer in Latvia: Coping and Outcomes

Objectives: The factors that influence parents’ coping strategies after their child is diagnosed with cancer and the outcomes of coping are not fully understood. The challenges of coping can be accompanied by negative consequences, such as posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), but can also result in positive long-term effects, like posttraumatic growth (PTG) experienced after the struggle of a challenging life event. This study aims to examine the relationship between care­givers’ cognitive beliefs about the illness, personality traits, coping strategies they use to adapt to childhood cancer, and the psychological outcomes (PTSS and PTG) after cancer treatment. Method: A prospective, longitudinal, exploratory design was used in this study. Fifty-nine care­givers (51 mothers, 8 fathers) of pediatric cancer patients completed the Latvian version of the Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT) and brief personality measure Big Five Inverntory-10 (BFI-10) shortly after the diagnosis (T1). The second data collection (T2) was after the completion of the curative treatment. During this phase, the Responses to Stress Questionnaire (RSQ), Survivors’ version, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) were administered. Parents were recruited from Children’s Clinical University Hospital in Riga, Latvia. Results: Significant correlations were found between psychosocial risk factors (e.g., acute stress reactions of parents after diagnosis and negative cognitive beliefs about the illness) at the beginning of the treatment and posttraumatic symptoms after the completion of the treatment. The differences in the choice of coping strategies (Primary / Secondary Control Engagement Coping), as well as two types of involuntary stress responses (involuntary engagement and involuntary disengagement) were observed and were significantly related to posttraumatic outcomes. Implications: The findings indicate that the intricate interconnection of initial cancer perceptions of parents, personality traits, and involuntary coping reactions plays a significant role in influencing levels of PTTS and PTG.