title: Parents of Children With Cancer: At-Risk or Resilient?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine adjustment in parents of children with cancer using a design that minimizes focusing effects and allows for direct comparison with parents of healthy children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parents of 305 children with cancer and a demographically similar sample of 231 parents of healthy children were evaluated using diagnostic interviews for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and questionnaire measures of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and psychological growth (PG), as well as measures of global psychological functioning.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rates of current and lifetime PTSD in parents of children with cancer were low, and did not differ from comparison parents. Likewise, levels of PTSS were not significantly different from comparison parents, but differed as a function of time since diagnosis, with parents of children who were ≥ 5 years from diagnosis reporting significantly lower PTSS than comparison parents. PG was higher in parents of children with cancer than in comparison parents regardless of time since diagnosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parents of children with cancer demonstrate resilience to this challenge.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, sean.phipps@stjude.org.
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Phipps
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Alanna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Victoria W
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Willard
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okado
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, and.
authors.forename: Qinlei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, and.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Noll
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: cancer and oncology; parent stress; posttraumatic stress; resilience