ACTRN12613000270718, https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?ACTRN=12613000270718.

Objective: For families under stress, positive grandparental relationships provide a valued 'safety net'. However, coping with family stressors can place a heavy burden on older individuals who may be experiencing declining health/energy themselves. This mixed-methods study assessed the prevalence of distress in grandparents of children with, and without, cancer, aiming to identify predictors of grandparental distress and quantify their barriers to care.Methods: Two hundred twenty-one grandparents [87 cancer group; 134 controls; mean age 65.47 years (SD = 6.97); 33.5% male] completed self-report questionnaires assessing distress, anxiety, depression, anger, 'need for help', support use, and barriers to psychosocial care.Results: A higher proportion of grandparents in the cancer group reported clinically relevant distress (32.9% vs. 12.7%; p < 0.001), anxiety (48.8% vs. 23.9%; p < 0.001), depression (24.4% vs. 6.0%; p < 0.001), and anger (23.5% vs. 6.8%; p = 0.001). In the cancer group, distress was higher in grandmothers and in families with fewer siblings. Grandparents rarely accessed evidence-based psychosocial support (<5% in both groups), although grandparents of children with cancer were more likely to seek religious/spiritual support. Barriers to help seeking included lack of knowledge and rurality. Grandparents of children with cancer qualitatively described undisclosed feelings of uncertainty and helplessness and provided advice to other grandparents to facilitate their coping.Conclusions: Grandparents of children with cancer were clearly more distressed than controls. Grandparents' capacity to support their families may be limited by their own, untreated, distress.

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Background: Perceived self-efficacy (SE) is an important factor underlying psychological wellbeing. Refugees suffer many experiences that can compromise SE. This study tested the impact of enhancing perceived SE on coping with trauma reminders and distress tolerance in tortured refugees. Methods:Torture survivors (N = 40) were administered a positive SE induction in which they retrieved mastery-related autobiographical memories, or a non-SE (NSE) induction, and then viewed trauma-related images. Participants rated their distress following presentation of each image. Participants then completed a frustration-inducing mirror-tracing task to index distress tolerance.Results: Participants in the SE condition reported less distress and negative affect, and improved coping in relation to viewing the trauma-related images than those in the NSE condition. The SE induction also led to greater persistence with the mirror-tracing task than the NSE induction. Conclusions:These findings provide initial evidence that promoting SE in tortured refugees can assist with managing distress from trauma reminders, and promoting greater distress tolerance.Enhancing perceived SE in tortured refugees may increase their capacity to tolerate distress during therapy, and may be a useful means to improve treatment response. K E Y W O R D S

Grandparents are significantly affected by childhood cancer. The impact appears across many domains of life and results in meaningful QOL differences. Given that four or more individuals may be affected per child, and that grandparent well-being can influence the whole family, interventions targeting at-risk grandparents are needed.

This study examined the quality and satisfaction of sexual/romantic relationships of adolescents/young adults (AYAs) who recently completed cancer treatment. AYAs between 16 and 26 years old (62.5% female) and less than 24 months post-treatment were interviewed using the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS) interview. Of 43 participants, 16 (37.2%) were in a relationship at time of the interview; eight (50%) reported minor relationship/sexual difficulties. AYAs identified emotional support with their partner as positive aspects of their relationships, and described relational conflict associated with communication difficulties and loss of sexual interest. Better understanding the factors that enable healthy relationships warrants further exploration.

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