Relationships Between Parenting Self-efficacy and Distress in Parents Who Have School-aged Children and Have Been Treated with Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant or Have No Cancer History

Objective: Studies demonstrate that parents with cancer experience distress and that parenting self-efficacy (PSE) is related to distress among parents without cancer. However, no study to date has examined the relationships between PSE and psychological distress among parents with cancer. This study sought to address this issue by comparing parents with cancer who had undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) to parents without cancer on measures of PSE and psychological distress.

Methods: A sample of 57 patients diagnosed with cancer who had undergone HSCT and a control group of 57 parents with no history of cancer were recruited for participation in the study. Medical record reviews assessed clinical variables, and participants filled out self-report measures of demographics, PSE, general self-efficacy, and psychological distress.

Results: As hypothesized, parents with cancer reported less PSE and more psychological distress than controls (all p-values ≤ 0.05). Furthermore, findings indicated that both PSE and general self-efficacy mediated the relationship between cancer status and psychological distress.

Conclusions: Findings expand understanding of the potential sources of distress among parents with cancer who have been treated with HSCT and who have school-aged children. They also suggest that interventions aimed at reducing distress in these individuals should seek to target both parenting and general self-efficacy.