Factors affecting caregiver burden among parents of children with cancer: A path analysis.
Niv Heller, Semyon Melnikov
PMID 38716820WHAT IT FOUND
Parents of children with cancer reported high burden.
Their burden tracked with seeing the illness as threatening and catastrophizing about pain, not with social support. Resilience's link to burden ran through illness perception and pain catastrophizing.
Key findings
01Parents' average caregiver burden was 25.0 of a possible 48, which the scale classifies as high.
02Caregiver burden was linked to higher pain catastrophizing and more threatening illness perception, and to lower resilience; social support showed no association.
03In the path model, the association between resilience and burden ran through illness perception and pain catastrophizing; resilience no longer had a direct association with burden.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 67 parents were surveyed, and most were mothers, Jewish, born in Israel and highly educated, so the findings may not apply to other parents. The study measured everything at one time, so it cannot show which factor caused burden or how relationships change over time. Parents reported their own feelings, so current mood, social desirability or memory could affect the answers. The questionnaires were not validated specifically for parents of children with cancer. Social support was excluded from the path model because it was not associated with the other variables.
Declared interests
The research received no specific funding, and the authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that building resilience or social support will reduce caregiver burden. This was a cross-sectional survey, social support was not associated with burden, and resilience had no direct association with burden in the path model.