Coping strategies used by mothers and fathers following diagnosis of congenital heart disease.
Abigail C Demianczyk, Colleen F Bechtel Driscoll, Allison Karpyn and 3 others
PMID 34519072WHAT IT FOUND
Parents of children with congenital heart disease described many coping strategies, including advocating for care, seeking emotional support, acceptance, and religion.
Some also vented, distracted themselves, denied the diagnosis, or used substances.
Key findings
01Most parents reported using strategies the authors linked to better adjustment, including active coping (73.53%), seeking emotional support (61.76%), acceptance (58.82%), and turning to religion (58.82%). Many also reported focusing on and venting emotions (50.00%).
02Most parents (82.35%) described coping tied to caring for a critically ill child, such as staying at the bedside, taking time away, self-education, trusting the medical team, connecting with other CHD parents, being strong, guarding illness information, and hypervigilant parenting.
03Mothers and fathers did not differ in total number of strategies, but mothers more often reported venting or crying (70.00% vs 21.43%) and behavioral disengagement (25.00% vs 0.00%). No fathers mentioned peer support from other CHD families, while 35% of mothers did.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Parents were interviewed one to three years after diagnosis, so their accounts may be affected by memory and current feelings. The study included 20 mothers and 14 fathers from 21 families, and the sample varied widely, so it cannot compare coping by race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Most parents had a partner, so findings may not apply to single parents or families without co-parenting. The study did not measure whether any coping strategy improved parental mental health or child development.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest statement is included in the supplied text. The article is tagged as receiving NIH extramural and U.S. government P.H.S. research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude these strategies improve or worsen mental health. The study described what parents reported doing; it did not measure how those strategies affected parents or children.