Gender differences in coping and stress among parents of children with complex congenital heart disease (CHD)

This cross-sectional investigation explored whether there are gender differences in coping and perceived parenting stress among parents of children born with complex congenital heart disease (CHD). This study is also the first step in building a model to predict the psychological adjustment of children with CHD, associated with coping, stress, and gender of a parent and represents an attempt to de-emphasize the negative focus that is frequently placed on mothers in relation to their children's adjustment to CHD. Elucidating the complementary nature of coping among parents of children with CHD will hopefully demonstrate the necessity for treatment interventions that include both mothers and fathers. Descriptive statistics, Pearson and Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients, matched sample t-tests, and multiple regression analyses were used to examine variables, including parent coping and stress, children's coping and overall psychological adjustment, and degree of illness severity. Instruments used included: the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WAYS), Parenting Stress Index/Short form (PSI/SF), the Kidcope, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the New York Heart Association's Functional Classification of Cardiovascular Disease Scale (NYHA).;The final sample consisted of 36 children and adolescents with CHD between the ages of 5 and 19, 36 mothers, and 36 fathers. Participants were recruited from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) pediatric cardiology laboratory and the Children's Health Information Network (CHIN).;By using matched sample t-tests, it was hypothesized that there would be gender differences in coping and stress among mothers and fathers of children with CHD. Additionally, by applying multiple regression analyses, it was hypothesized that each gender's coping and total stress variables would account for a significant proportion of variance on children's overall psychological adjustment. The data collected supported the hypotheses that there are gender differences in coping, and that mothers' and fathers' coping and stress have independent predictive contributions to children's psychological adjustment. The findings did not support the postulate that there are distinct gender differences in perceived parenting stress.