Parental Spiritual Coping with a Chronically Ill Child

Abstract

Upon the diagnosis of a chronic condition for a child, the stressors can be multiple, ongoing, and have the potential to frequently change over the prolongation of the health care journey and affect all members of the family system. The effects of stress on parents are facilitated by their cognitive assessments and coping mechanisms. A large number of people use their spiritual beliefs as a coping mechanism to understand, assign meaning to, and deal with negative life events. The purpose of the current study is to recognize the complexity of stressors for parents with a chronically ill child and to evaluate the presence and effectiveness of spiritual coping on these stressors. An online survey and in-person interviews were conducted for a mixed methods approach. A total of 30 individuals participated in the survey portion and 8 parents were interviewed. Descriptive statistics, a multiple regression, and correlation tests were conducted to analyze the survey portion while the interviews were recorded for a thematic analysis. Although an individual's coping and spirituality do not bilaterally help to decrease the level of parental stress, an individual's spirituality does have significant contributions to the level of parental stress. The thematic analysis revealed the following four themes including: (1) parental spirituality has grown stronger, (2) effectiveness of emotional/instrumental social support, (3) fear of the unknown of child's future abilities, and (4) having a greater appreciation for life in general. An in depth understanding of parental stress in regards to having a chronically ill child, coping mechanisms, and spirituality are discussed in addition to the implications developed from the results of the current study