Preliminary Study of Coping, Perceived Control, and Depressive Symptoms in Youth with Sickle Cell Anemia.
Kemar V Prussien, Rachel E Siciliano, Abagail E Ciriegio and 4 others
PMID 34397574WHAT IT FOUND
For youth with sickle cell anemia who feel their peer stress is uncontrollable, using acceptance, positive thinking, or distraction linked to fewer depressive symptoms.
This association did not appear for those who felt in control. The study relied on parent reports in a small sample.
Key findings
01Greater use of secondary control coping was related to fewer reported depressive symptoms.
02Perceived control moderated the link between secondary control coping and depressive symptoms, showing a significant negative association only for low perceived control.
03There were no significant findings for models assessing primary control coping or disengagement coping.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample was very small, with only 28 participants. All data on coping, control, and symptoms came from parent reports, not the children themselves. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if coping skills cause lower depression or if lower depression leads to better coping. The authors note that the lack of findings for age and other variables could be due to Type II errors (false negatives) caused by the small sample size. There was no comparison group of healthy peers, so it is unknown if coping patterns differ from children without sickle cell disease.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (Extramural). No specific financial conflicts of interest or commercial sponsors are listed in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that teaching secondary control coping will reduce depression in all youth with sickle cell anemia. The benefit was only statistically significant for those perceived as having low control over stressors, and the small sample size means this finding is preliminary.