Changes Over Time in
Good-Parent Beliefs Among Parents of Children With Serious Illness: A Two-Year Cohort Study.
J Pain Symptom Manage 2019;
58:190-197. [PMID:
31026508 PMCID:
PMC6679776 DOI:
10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2019.04.018]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2019] [Revised: 04/15/2019] [Accepted: 04/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
CONTEXT
Parents of seriously ill children hold personal beliefs about what they should do to be good parents. How these beliefs change over time is unknown.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this study were to describe the pattern of Good-Parent Beliefs over time, and determine whether parents' hopeful patterns of thinking, affect, and perceived child's health are associated with changes in beliefs at 12 and 24 months.
METHODS
Our longitudinal sample included 124 parents of 100 children hospitalized with serious illness. We used latent transition models to classify parents into groups with similar Good-Parent Beliefs during the baseline and follow-up periods and modeled the change in good-parent beliefs over time as a function of covariates using generalized linear mixed models.
RESULTS
Two parent belief profiles emerged from the latent transition model: Loved ("Making sure my child feels loved," n = 61 at baseline) and Informed ("Making informed decisions," n = 63 at baseline). At 12 months, 21 parents (20.4%) had moved into the Loved group and no parents transitioned to the Informed group. By 24 months, eight parents transitioned to the Loved group and four to the Informed group (13.04%). Transition into the Loved group was associated with parents' baseline degree of hopeful thinking and positive perceptions of child's health at baseline.
CONCLUSION
Some parents change their parenting priorities over time. Hopeful patterns of thinking and perception of child health appear to predict change. Clinicians should regularly reevaluate Good-Parent Beliefs over time to promote priority-congruent dialogue.
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