Background: A child’s chronic or oncological disease is a stressful condition for parents, that may affect the adaptive management helpful for warranting the child’s wellbeing to a disease. Particularly, this study focuses on the possible connections between the variable “culture” and parental strategies to cope with child’s severe disease, by a comparison between Italian and Portuguese mothers. Design and Methods: This research inquires differences and cross-cultural elements among the coping strategies used by Italian and Portuguese mothers of child with chronic or oncological disease. Participants are two mothers’ groups: 59 Italian mothers (M=37,7; SD=4,5) and 36 Portuguese mothers (M=39,3; SD=4,6). The tool used was the Italian version and the Portuguese version of the COPE inventory, that measures five coping strategies: social support, avoidance coping, positive aptitude, religious and humor, active coping. Results: There were statistically significant differences between Portuguese and Italian mothers on Social support F(3, 94)=6.32, p=.014, η2=.065, on Religious and humor F(3, 94)=20.06, p=.001, η2=.18 (higher values=Portuguese mothers) and on Avoidance F(3, 94)=3.30, p=.06, η2=.035 (higher values=Italian mothers). Regarding to child disease, the only statistically significant difference was on Religious & humor F(3, 94)=7.49, p=.007, η2=.076 (higher values=mothers of children with chronic disease). Conclusions: The findings of specific cultural transversalities suggest important reflections about the relationship between physicians and parents; in fact, mothers’ coping abilities may allow health workers involved in a child’s care not only to understand how parents face a distressful event, but to provide them a professional support.

Perricone, G., Prista Guerra, M., Cruz, O., Polizzi, C., Lima, L., Morales, M.R., et al. (2013). MATERNAL COPING STRATEGIES IN RESPONSE TO A CHILD’S CHRONIC AND ONCOLOGICAL DISEASE. A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY – ITALY & PORTUGAL. PEDIATRIC REPORTS, 5(2), 43-47 [10.4081/pr2013.e11].

MATERNAL COPING STRATEGIES IN RESPONSE TO A CHILD’S CHRONIC AND ONCOLOGICAL DISEASE. A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY – ITALY & PORTUGAL

PERRICONE, Giovanna;POLIZZI, Concetta;MORALES, Maria Regina;FONTANA, Valentina
2013-01-01

Abstract

Background: A child’s chronic or oncological disease is a stressful condition for parents, that may affect the adaptive management helpful for warranting the child’s wellbeing to a disease. Particularly, this study focuses on the possible connections between the variable “culture” and parental strategies to cope with child’s severe disease, by a comparison between Italian and Portuguese mothers. Design and Methods: This research inquires differences and cross-cultural elements among the coping strategies used by Italian and Portuguese mothers of child with chronic or oncological disease. Participants are two mothers’ groups: 59 Italian mothers (M=37,7; SD=4,5) and 36 Portuguese mothers (M=39,3; SD=4,6). The tool used was the Italian version and the Portuguese version of the COPE inventory, that measures five coping strategies: social support, avoidance coping, positive aptitude, religious and humor, active coping. Results: There were statistically significant differences between Portuguese and Italian mothers on Social support F(3, 94)=6.32, p=.014, η2=.065, on Religious and humor F(3, 94)=20.06, p=.001, η2=.18 (higher values=Portuguese mothers) and on Avoidance F(3, 94)=3.30, p=.06, η2=.035 (higher values=Italian mothers). Regarding to child disease, the only statistically significant difference was on Religious & humor F(3, 94)=7.49, p=.007, η2=.076 (higher values=mothers of children with chronic disease). Conclusions: The findings of specific cultural transversalities suggest important reflections about the relationship between physicians and parents; in fact, mothers’ coping abilities may allow health workers involved in a child’s care not only to understand how parents face a distressful event, but to provide them a professional support.
2013
Perricone, G., Prista Guerra, M., Cruz, O., Polizzi, C., Lima, L., Morales, M.R., et al. (2013). MATERNAL COPING STRATEGIES IN RESPONSE TO A CHILD’S CHRONIC AND ONCOLOGICAL DISEASE. A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY – ITALY & PORTUGAL. PEDIATRIC REPORTS, 5(2), 43-47 [10.4081/pr2013.e11].
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
10447_74031.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Versione Editoriale
Dimensione 116.3 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
116.3 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10447/74031
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 12
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact