Predictors of Parenting Stress in Patients with Haematological Cancer

Abstract

This study was designed to identify potential determinants of parenting stress in parents with leukemia or lymphoma and with children younger than age 18 years. Participants recruited at a comprehensive cancer center completed self-report measures of parenting stress, attachment style, parenting alliance, depression, and anxiety. Depression was positively correlated with parenting stress. Anxious and avoidant attachment styles, but not the degree of physical distress or the quality of the parenting alliance, significantly predicted parenting stress. These findings underscore the relationship of parenting stress to psychological well-being and the contribution of individual characteristics in parents to this stress.

KEYWORDS:

• cancer
• oncology
• parenting stress
• attachment security
• depression
• parenting alliance