Experiences with a psychosocial screening instrument (S‐FIRST) to identify the psychosocial support needs of parents of children suffering from cancer

Abstract

Objectives:A large proportion of families with a child suffering from cancer are heavily burdened, both psychologically and socially functions, thus requiring treatment. Therefore, a systematic assessment of burden and needs is essential to identify clients with a high psychosocial burden and to allow for accurate decision making regarding indications for treatment. There is a great need for the development and validation of screening instruments in psychosocial counseling. Methods:The receiver operating characteristic curve is a basic method to evaluate the discriminatory power of diagnostic tests. We computed sensitivity/specificity indices based on a sample of parents of pediatric cancer patients; the parents were screened with the S-FIRST and completed another standardized instrument with reliable indicators. Results:We found significant area under the curve (AUC) values from 0.671 to 0.882, meaning that the S-FIRST screening instrument has small to medium discriminatory power. Conclusion:Our results support the use of a screening instrument for case history analyses in psychosocial counseling to identify clients with a high psychosocial burden.

Relation Between Social Support Received and Provided by Parents of Children, Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer and Stress Levels and Life and Family Satisfaction

“…Most research on social support mainly focuses on analysing social support received. More specifically, studies have shown that support is a source that helps parents cope with the difficult situations caused by childhood cancer (Haunberger et al, 2019). However, social support provided by parents to other people facing the same situation is also a key variable to cope with such a difficult situation, as confirmed by the results from the present study.…”

Importance of Social Support of Parents of Children with Cancer: A Multicomponent Model Using Partial Least Squares-Path Modelling

“…Most of the research on social support places its main focus on analyzing social support received, with few studies examining the influence that social support provided may have on parents' quality of life. Previous studies have shown that the social support received is a source of resources helping parents cope with the difficult situation of childhood cancer [68]. However, the social support that parents provide to their own network is also a fundamental variable in the management of this process, as the results of this study show.…”

Effects of Social Counseling on Parents of a Child With Cancer

“…In scientific discourse in the field of social work, there is an active debate on the development of suitable concepts and methods for case analyses (Buttner, Gahleitner, Hochuli Freund, & Röh, 2018;Gahleitner, Hahn, & Glemser, 2012). Some empirical studies on diagnostics in social work are available in the English-language literature, especially with regard to quantitative research in the areas of clinical social work (Harkness, 2011;Haunberger, Rüegger, & Baumgartner, 2019;Ishibashi, 2005) and child protection (e.g., Helm, 2011;Thomas & Holland, 2010). In contrast, in the German-language literature, only few empirical studies are available on diagnostics in social work in the area of public health (Gautschi & Rüegger, 2012;Hanses, 2002;Hüttemann, 2008;Wyssen-Kaufmann, 2015) and child protection (Becker-Lenz, Gautschi, & Rüegger, 2017;Rüegger, 2017).…”

“…In a first step, we divided the population into two groups with the help of the S-FIRST screening instrument. A cut-off level (13-14) was calculated using the statistical part of S-FIRST (for details see Haunberger et al, 2019). On the basis of N = 71 cases (survey wave one), the screening divided the parents into a group with high psychosocial burden (56%, n = 31) and a group with low psychosocial burden (44%, n = 40).…”