Parental palliative cancer: psychosocial adjustment and health-related quality of life in adolescents participating in a German family counselling service

BMC Palliative Care

Research Article

Hans-Henning Flechtner¹  Daniel Führer²  Franziska Kühne³  Thomas Krattenmacher³  Georg Romer³  Birgit Möller³  Kai v Klitzing⁴  Corinna Bergelt⁵  Johanna C Ernst⁵  Wolfgang Herzog⁶ 

[1] Department Of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Otto-von-Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany;Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medical Centre, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353, Berlin, Germany;Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany;Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Centre, Liebigstraße 20a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany;Department of Medical Psychology, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany;Department of Psychosomatic and General Clinical Medicine, University Medical Centre, Im Neuenheimer Feld 325, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany;

关键词: Palliative care;    Adolescents;    Psychosocial adjustment;    Health-related quality of life;    Coping;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-684X-11-21

 received in 2012-03-19, accepted in 2012-10-25,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundParental palliative disease is a family affair, however adolescent's well-being and coping are still rarely considered. The objectives of this paper were a) to identify differences in psychosocial adjustment and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among adolescents and young adults with parents suffering from palliative cancer or cancers in other disease stages, b) to relate psychosocial adjustment and health-related quality of life to adolescent coping, and c) to explore significant mediator and predictor variables.MethodsCross-sectional data were derived from a multi-site research study of families before child-centered counselling. N=86 adolescents and young adults were included, their mean age 13.78 years (sd 2.45), 56% being female. Performed analyses included ANCOVA, multiple linear regression, and mediation analysis.ResultsAdolescents with parents suffering from palliative cancers reported significantly less total psychosocial problems, and better overall HRQoL. There were no significant group differences regarding coping frequency and efficacy. Our set of coping items significantly mediated the effect of parental disease stage on psychosocial problems and HRQoL. Further, parental disease status and general family functioning predicted psychosocial problems (R2adj =.390) and HRQoL (R2adj =.239) best.ConclusionThe study indicates distress among adolescents throughout the entire parental disease process. Our analysis suggests that counselling services could offer supportive interventions which focus particularly on adolescent coping as well as family functioning.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Kühne et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012