Parents' Verbal and Nonverbal Caring Behaviors and Child Distress During Cancer-Related Port Access Procedures: A Time-Window Sequential Analysis.
Jinbing Bai, Felicity W K Harper, Louis A Penner and 2 others
PMID 29052654WHAT IT FOUND
Parents' nonverbal caring behaviors, such as eye contact and staying within touching distance, were followed by less child distress during port access.
Parents' own distress correlated with these caring behaviors. Findings suggest coaching parents on specific nonverbal cues may help children cope better.
Key findings
01Parent nonverbal caring behaviors (eye contact, comforting, supporting) preceded lower child behavioral and verbal distress.
02Parent verbal and nonverbal caring behaviors were positively associated with higher parent distress ratings.
03Child distress triggered parent caring behaviors, suggesting a reactive rather than purely proactive dynamic.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study design is observational, so causation cannot be inferred from the temporal relationships. The sample was small (43 children) and limited to English-speaking families. Continuous variables were transformed into categorical ones, simplifying the data. The study did not examine potential moderators like child age or parent psychological attributes.
Declared interests
None declared in the provided text, though the study was supported by NIH grants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that parent caring behaviors cause lower child distress. The correlational data shows these behaviors are associated with higher distress, suggesting parents may increase caring behaviors in response to a distressed child or their own anxiety. The sequential findings indicate these behaviors are followed by less distress, but the overall picture is complex and reactive.