Stress-Coping Patterns of Japanese School-Aged Children with Allergic Diseases: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Although school-aged children often suffer from multiple several allergic diseases concurrently, most studies on stress coping have examined allergic diseases separately. Herein, semi-structured interviews were conducted to evaluate stress-coping patterns associated with allergic diseases among ten children aged 9–12 years, and obtained data were subjected to qualitative thematic analysis. Characteristic word contents were grouped into categories to explore themes. After the analysis, e themes—objection, support, rescue, distraction, concealment, catharsis, conversion, and positive thoughts—and 13 categories were identified. Furthermore, a thematic map was used on the following three coping domains of coping: problem-focused and behavioral coping, emotion-focused and behavioral coping, and emotion-focused and cognitive coping. Behavioral coping could be easily implemented in children. This study revealed that it is critical for children with allergic diseases to have various coping methods and functional coping strategies should be implemented.

Keywords:

• allergic disease
• stress coping
• child
• school-age
• qualitative study

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the school-aged children with allergic diseases who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (grant number JP26861963).