Emotional, Behavioral, and Physical Health Consequences in Caregivers of Children with Cancer: A Network Analysis Differentiation in Mothers’ and Fathers’ Reactivity

Abstract

Background: Pediatric cancer presents mental and physical challenges for patients and their caregivers. However, parental distress has been understudied despite its negative impact on quality of life, disability, and somatic disorders. Parents of oncopediatric patients experience high levels of suffering with their resilience tested throughout their children’s illness. Identifying at-risk parents and offering specific treatments is crucial and urgent to prevent or alleviate negative outcomes. Methods: This study used statistical and network analyses to examine symptom patterns assessed by the Kellner Symptom Questionnaire in 16 fathers and 23 mothers at different time points: diagnosis, treatment, and discharge. Results: The results indicated significantly higher distress levels in parents of oncopediatric children compared to the control reference population. Gender-specific differences in symptom profiles were observed at each time point, and symptoms showed a gradual but non-significant decrease over time. Conclusions: The network analysis yielded valuable insights that, when applied in clinical practice, can guide the implementation of timely treatments to prevent and manage parental distress, thus addressing long-term, stress-related issues in primary caregivers of children diagnosed and treated for cancer.

The Impact of Music Therapy in a Pediatric Oncology Setting: An Italian Observational Network Study

“…It helps identify nodes that are probable connectors between other nodes, thus indicating which nodes are most likely to facilitate connections within the network. More information on these indices can be found elsewhere [ 16 , 28 ].…”

“…MT not only benefits patients but also offers opportunities for family bonding and emotional support for caregivers [ 15 ]. Involving parents and family members in MT sessions helps create a robust network of support for pediatric patients throughout their illness [ 16 ].…”

A network study to differentiate suicide attempt risk profiles in male and female patients with major depressive disorder

“…For example, from our research analysing parental distress between mothers and fathers in children with cancer, although in the scales used both parents had a peak in anxiety scores, the betweenness allowed us to understand that in the fathers, anxiety, compared to the mothers, had a secondary influence in the symptomatologic picture (although it was the highest score in the questionnaire). It was not the best symptom on which to intervene as it was instead the depressive symptomatology (variable with the highest betweenness) that redistributed the most information in the network (Scarponi et al, 2023).…”