New evidence on the stress of parenting sick children

It’s no surprise that the parents of chronically ill children face more stress than other parents. But now a systematic review lays out the evidence on exactly what causes this stress, and what health care providers should do to help.

The review, published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, included studies involving parents of children up to age 21 with asthma, cancer, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, epilepsy, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and sickle cell disease. It’s the first review of its kind to examine the stress on parents of caring for children who suffer from a broad range of health conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 percent of U.S. families have a chronically ill child.

The review found that added parental stress is caused by several specific factors, namely:

• the responsibility of managing a chronically-ill child’s medical care
• integrating the sick child’s needs into the family routine
• coordinating schooling for a sick child
• watching a child in pain
• explaining health problems to others

The reviewers concluded that future research needs to measure parental stress levels, as well as test interventions that can help relieve stress on parents of chronically-ill children. It also provided some evidence-based tips for parents of sick children:

• Accept help from friends or family who offer it.
• Find ways to share parenting and treatment responsibilities, so as to reduce the demands on one parent.
• Inform your child’s doctor if you think you may need help managing the stress related to caring for a child with a chronic illness.

It’s clear that parents of ill children need all of the assistance they can get. Reviews like this pave the way to studying intervention programs that can help families in a more systematic way.