Development and Evaluation of a Self-Care Program Based on Art Therapy for Mothers Caring for Hospitalized Children with Childhood Cancer: A Pilot Study

Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to develop a self-care program based on art therapy to relieve the psychological stress of mothers caring for hospitalized children with childhood cancer and to evaluate the program’s effect. @*Methods@#The program consisted of four sessions. Each session consisted of ‘my safe place,’ a ‘wheel of emotions,’ a ‘landscape of emotions,’ and a ‘dream catcher’.A total of six mothers participated, and their degree of depression, anxiety, and acute stress disorder was measured before and after the intervention program. In each session, the participants drew pictures according to the topic and consulted with an art psychotherapist. @*Results@#The four sessions of the self-care program based on art therapy were not able to reduce depression, anxiety, and stress levels. However, through the art therapy program, mothers expressed negative emotions through pictures and turned negative emotions into positive ones. @*Conclusion@#The psychological stress of mothers caring for children with childhood cancer should be cared for. Further research will be needed to develop and implement various programs that can care for the psychological stress of mothers caring for children with childhood cancer.

Posttraumatic Growth of Adolescents with Childhood Leukemia and their Parents

PURPOSE: Childhood leukemia is a serious trauma affecting both adolescents and their parents, who experience painful process. However, adolescents with leukemia and their parents also experience positive changes, which is referred to as posttraumatic growth. We examined posttraumatic growth, core beliefs, impact of event, and event-related rumination in adolescents within 5 years of a diagnosis of childhood leukemia and their parents. METHODS: The participants were 68 adolescents with childhood leukemia (aged 13~18 years) and their parents, who were recruited from C university hospital in Korea from May to September 2016. The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Core Belief Inventory, Impact of Event Scale-Revised, and Event-related Rumination Inventory were completed by the adolescents and their parents. The mean scores and correlations between variables were investigated for both set of participants. RESULTS: Parents showed significantly higher levels of posttraumatic growth, disruption of core beliefs, impact of event, and invasive rumination than adolescents. Disruption of core beliefs and deliberate rumination were positively correlated with posttraumatic growth in both groups. CONCLUSION: Nursing intervention programs that involve modifying core beliefs and inducing a positive thought can help adolescents with leukemia and their parents grow after traumatic events.

Predictors of the Posttraumatic Growth in Parents of Children with Leukemia

PURPOSE: Parents caring for children with leukemia experience a tremendous challenge to get positive results in overcoming traumatic events with their children. The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of posttraumatic growth in parents of children with leukemia. METHODS: One hundred thirty seven parents (117 mothers and 20 fathers) of children with leukemia participated this study from May to August in 2016. Participants completed self-report measures of posttraumatic growth, core belief, deliberate rumination, resilience and social support. RESULTS: All the variables were positively correlated with posttraumatic growth. Core belief, resilience and social support were significant predictors related to posttraumatic growth in parents of children with leukemia and explained for 54% of the variance in posttraumatic growth. CONCLUSION: The results show that there are several factors affecting posttraumatic growth in parents of children with leukemia. Therefore, nursing intervention programs including strengthening resilience, revising core belief as well as utilizing social support systems should be provided for this population in order to enhance positive psychological change beyond parental traumatic events related to children with leukemia.

Perception on Parental Coping on Unintentional Injury of Their Early Infants and Toddlers: Q Methodological Approach

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify parental coping strategies in the face of early infant and toddler injury, and to provide basic data for a parental education program and the most desirable directions it should take. METHODS: A Q-methodology to analyze the subjectivity of each item was used. Thirty-four Q-statements were derived from a literature review and interviews. Forty-seven parents were classified into a shape of normal distribution using a 9-point scale. Collected data were analyzed by the pc-QUANL program. RESULTS: Five types of parental coping in early infant and toddler injury were identified. Type I was “hospital treatment focused”, type II was “Improving the safety of the child's environment”, type III was “expression of negative emotion”, type IV was “taking the lead in problem solving”, and type V was “Interrogating the person in charge of the situation in which the injury occurred”. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that different approaches to educational programs can be used for parents in early childhood injury.