title: Resilience factors play an important role in the mental health of parents when children survive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Childhood cancer is a tremendous stressor that requires parents to adapt to new challenges, and research has mainly focused on psychopathology and rarely on a resource-oriented perspective, such as resilience. This study assessed resilience factors among parents of children surviving acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and parents of healthy children. We also explored the association between parental resilience and mental health.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study compared 57 parents of 40 children from eight to 15 years of age in remission from acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and 63 parents of 42 healthy children. The Resilience Scale for Adults and the General Health Questionnaire were used to assess parental resilience and mental health.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parents of children surviving acute lymphoblastic leukaemia showed significantly lower levels of resilience than parents of healthy children, but no significant difference was found for mental health. Certain resilience factors were positively associated with mental health, especially for mothers, such as family cohesion, good perception of self and being able to plan their future.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Resilience factors may help to protect parents' mental health, especially mothers, when their child has survived acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and should be considered in a clinical setting. Further research on resilience factors for fathers is needed.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, The Research Centre for Health Promotion and Resources HiST/NTNU, Sør-Trondelag University College (HiST), Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Mary-Elizabeth
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Eilertsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Odin
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hjemdal
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social Science and Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Thien Thanh
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Section for Psychosomatics and CL-child Psychiatry, Women and Children's Division, Department of Clinical Neurosciences for Children, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Trond H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Diseth
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Trude
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reinfjell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors
keywords: Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia; Challenges; Mental health; Parents; Resilience Scale for Adults