Parenting Challenges And Psychological Adjustment In Cleft Lip Parents

To explore the challenges and psychological adjustment experiences of parents of children with cleft lip(CLP) and palate in parenting, providing a basis for constructing intervention programs. Using a descriptive phenomenological research approach and purposive sampling, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 parents of children with CLP in a tertiary hospital in Nanjing from August to December 2024. Colaizzi's 7-step analysis method was used to summarize and extract themes. Four themes were extracted: ① Parents' caregiving distress. including excessive psychological burden, feeding difficulties, and heavy caregiving tasks; ② Parents' caregiving stress, including excessive economic burden, lack of resource support, and public scrutiny; ③ Parents use a variety of psychological adjustment strategies, including positive and passive coping; ④ Weak support systems, with parents eager for multi-party support, including professional support from medical staff, family and social support. Parents of children with cleft lip and palate face many challenges in the process of parenting, and the pressure of parenting is especially prominent among parents with serious conditions, low family income and those living in rural areas, whose demand dynamics change in phases and are eager for support from multiple sources. Healthcare professionals should focus on the parental distress of parents, build a multidisciplinary support platform by combining with the family's actual situation, and provide systematic and professional support according to the individual's needs, so as to promote parents' positive response to parenting stress, and promote the overall healthy development of children with cleft lip and palate.