Tag: Parental Happiness

Linking PTSD and the Parents of Children with Cancer

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

Research Paper Title

Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms among Lithuanian Parents Raising Children with Cancer.

Background

The study aims to evaluate post-traumatic stress symptom expression among Lithuanian parents raising children with cancer, including social, demographic, and medical factors, and to determine their significance for the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

Methods

The study was carried out in two major Lithuanian hospitals treating children with oncologic diseases. The cross-sectional study included 195 parents, out of which 151 were mothers (77.4%) and 44 were fathers (22.6%). Post-traumatic stress symptoms were assessed using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. To collect the sociodemographic, childhood cancer, and treatment data, we developed a questionnaire that was completed by the parents. Main study results were obtained using multiple linear regression.

Results

A total of 75.4% of parents caring for children with cancer had pronounced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The female gender (β = 0.83, p < 0.001) was associated with an increased manifestation of symptoms, whilst higher parental education (β = -0.21, p = 0.034) and the absence of relapse (β = -0.48, p < 0.001) of the child’s disease reduced post-traumatic stress symptom expression.

Conclusions

Obtained results confirmed that experiencing a child’s cancer diagnosis and treatment is extremely stressful for many parents. This event may lead to impaired mental health and increased post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) risk; hence, it is necessary to provide better support and assistance to parents of children with cancer.

Reference

Baniene, I. & Zemaitiene, N. (2020) Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms among Lithuanian Parents Raising Children with Cancer. Children (Basel, Switzerland). 7(9), pp.116. doi: 10.3390/children7090116.

Feeling Sad: Have Kids, then Move Them Out!

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

When it comes to who is happier, people with kids or those without, most research points to the latter.

Now it seems that parents are happier than their peers later in life – when their children move out.

Most surveys of parental happiness have focused on those whose children still live at home. These tend to show that people with kids are less happy than their child-free peers because they have less free time, sleep and money.

Christoph Becker at Heidelberg University in Germany and his colleagues wondered if the story might be different for parents whose kids have left home.

To find out, they analysed data from a European survey that asked 55,000 people aged 50 and older about their emotional well-being.

They found that those with children had greater life satisfaction and fewer symptoms of depression than people without children, but only if their kids had left home (Becker, Kirchmaier & Trautmann, 2019).

This may be because when children grow up and move out they provide social enrichment to their parents minus the day-to-day stress of looking after them (Becker, Kirchmaier & Trautmann, 2019). The researchers also believe they may also give something back by providing care and financial support to their parents.

The picture is similar in the US, says Nicholas Wolfinger at the University of Utah. He recently analysed 40 years of data and found that empty-nest parents aged 50 to 70 were 5-6% more likely to report being very happy than those with kids still at home.

If parents baulk at the idea of waiting for their kids to move out to maximise their potential happiness, they could move to a country with better childcare support, says Wolfinger.

A 2016 study found that parents with children at home were slightly happier than their child-free peers if they lived in places that have paid parental leave, generous childcare subsidies and holiday and sick leave, like Norway, Portugal and Sweden.

Reference

Becker, C., Kirchmaier, I. & Trautmann, S.T. (2019) Marriage, parenthood and social network: Subjective well-being and mental health in old age. PLOS One. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218704.