Family rituals, financial burden, and mothers' adjustment in pediatric cancer.
The financial burden of childhood cancer may contribute to the distress that parents experience during and after treatment. Inconsistent relationships between financial burden and parental psychological distress highlight the need to identify psychosocial factors that may moderate this relationship. In this study, we aimed to determine if family ritual meaning moderates the relationship between financial burden and anxiety and depression symptoms among mothers of children with cancer. Portuguese mothers of children with cancer on-treatment and off-treatment (N = 244) completed measures of financial burden, anxiety and depression symptoms, and family ritual meaning. Moderating effects were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Family ritual meaning buffered the effect of financial burden on anxiety, but not on depression symptoms. The relationship between financial burden and anxiety symptoms was not significant when mothers endorsed higher levels of family ritual meaning. Although preliminary, the current findings suggest that high levels of perceived family ritual meaning may constitute a protective factor against the effect of financial burden on mothers' anxiety symptoms. Promoting family ritual meaning might be an effective approach to reducing anxiety symptoms of mothers of children with cancer in the context of financial burden. (PsycINFO Database Record
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences.
Susana
0000-0002-4196-061X
S
Santos
Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa.
Carla
C
Crespo
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences.
M Cristina
0000-0002-5083-7322
MC
Canavarro
Center for Healthcare Delivery Science, Nemours Children's Health System/Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children.
Melissa A
MA
Alderfer
Center for Healthcare Delivery Science, Nemours Children's Health System/Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children.
Anne E
AE
Kazak
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005195:Family Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000523:psychology*; D011174:Portugal; D055815:Young Adult