Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Children's Illness-Related Concerns Scale.
Hebah A Almulla, Frances Marcus Lewis, Monica L Oxford
PMID 37625187WHAT IT FOUND
Children of mothers with breast cancer experience five distinct types of worry: changes to family routine, uncertainty, fear of catching the illness, fear of the mother dying, and concern for the mother’s well-being.
These should be assessed separately rather than as one total score.
Key findings
01A five-factor model best represents children's illness-related concerns, distinguishing between family routine changes, uncertainty, illness contagion, maternal death, and maternal well-being.
02The five-factor model showed very good fit to the data and acceptable internal consistency reliability for each subscale.
03Collapsing the five distinct factors into a single score or fewer factors is not supported by the data.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study sample was limited to children of mothers with early-stage breast cancer, so the results may not apply to families facing advanced disease or other types of cancer. The participants were primarily from White, highly educated, two-parent households, which limits generalizability to diverse populations. This was a cross-sectional study of a new measure, so it does not show whether the scale predicts future adjustment or responds to interventions.
Declared interests
The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use this scale to diagnose clinical anxiety or depression in children. It measures specific illness-related concerns and requires further validation before being used in clinical trials or diagnostic contexts.