Parent Caregiving Experiences and Posttraumatic Growth Following Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant

Abstract

Background: Parents of children recovering from hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) experience significant distress due to unpredictable and potentially life-threatening complications. Distress is heightened by intensive caregiving parents provide the child during the first 100 days after HSCT. Management of distress and adaptation to caregiving responsibilities may be enhanced if parents find benefit in their experiences through posttraumatic growth (PTG), yet little is known about how parents’ experiences after HSCT foster PTG. This study aimed to explore how parents experience caregiving and PTG 100 days after children’s HSCT. Methods: Thirty-one parents completed semi-structured interviews ∼100 days after children received HSCT. Results: Four major themes emerged from the data to describe parent experiences after HSCT: (1) psychosocial and healthcare contextual factors; (2) cognitive, affective, and social support reactions to HSCT; (3) problem-based, emotion-based, and cognitive coping strategies; and (4) PTG. Discussion: Results increase the understanding of how parents’ experiences and caregiving responsibilities contribute to PTG. These findings may guide future research to understand how these experiences influence PTG. Nurses are integral to the parents’ experiences. Future work should focus on nursing interventions that enhance positive reinterpretation of parents’ experiences after their children’s HSCT.

Post‐traumatic growth among pediatric transplant recipients and their caregivers: A scoping review

“…10 Turning to similarities between pediatric transplant and oncology, both areas have utilized qualitative interviewing methods to understand PTG in a depth not afforded by self-report questionnaires. 21,22,25,26,33,34 This review highlights important gaps in the literature and future directions to investigate. First, it is important to note that this review aimed to include studies that also examined PTG among siblings of pediatric transplant recipients, but no such studies were identified.…”

“…Four of the studies conducted qualitative interviews of children and parents or caregivers utilizing various methodologies. 21,22,25,26 One of the studies interviewed adolescent SOT recepients 21 while two interviewed parents of SCT recipients, 22,26 and one interviewed mothers of kidney transplant recipients only. 25 The study that interviewed adolescents 21 highlighted three consistent areas of PTG that emerged including personal, relationship, and introspective growth.…”

Posttraumatic growth among childhood cancer survivors and their caregivers: associations with rumination and beliefs challenge

“…The PTG process has been investigated among people with chronic diseases, such as CC, however studies mainly examine the survivors (12)(13)(14)(15) and the caregivers (16)(17)(18) separately. Some studies approached CC survivors and their caregivers together, but most of them did not investigate the cognitive processes (e.g., challenge to core beliefs and rumination) involved in the PTG (3,19) .…”

Bone Marrow Transplantation: bereavement due to the impact of bodily and psychosocial changes from the perspective of adolescent recipients and their parents

“…Factors such as social support, support from healthcare professionals, and counseling are considered to be highly correlated with post-traumatic growth in individuals who have undergone BMT (Jeon et al, 2015). A study found evidence of post-traumatic growth in caregiver parents of transplanted adolescents and found that care-related responsibilities contribute to this positive outcome (Beckmann et al, 2021).…”

“…These findings suggest the need to implement interventions that encourage the development of adaptive resources and optimize coping, encouraging autonomy and minimizing the toxic effects of chronic exposure to stress (Oliveira-Cardoso et al, 2018). Work with parents should focus on actions focused on positively reinterpreting their children's post-BMT experiences (Beckmann et al, 2021).…”