Research

Is parental coping associated with quality of life in juvenile idiopathic arthritis?

Sabrina Cavallo¹ , Debbie Ehrmann Feldman² , Bonnie Swaine³ , Garbis Meshefedjian⁴ , Peter N Malleson⁵ and Ciarán M Duffy⁶

¹  École de Réadaptation, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal and the Montreal Children's Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

²  École de Réadaptation, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, the Montreal Children's Hospital, Groupe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Santé and the Public Health Department, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

³  École de Réadaptation, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal and Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation du Montréal Métropolitain, Institut de Réadaptation de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

⁴  Public Health Department, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

⁵  British Columbia's Children's Hospital and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

⁶  Division of Rheumatology, Department of Paediatrics, Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre and McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

author email corresponding author email

Pediatric Rheumatology 2009, 7:7doi:10.1186/1546-0096-7-7

Published:	11 March 2009

Abstract

Parents of children with a chronic condition such as juvenile arthritis must cope with greater demands than those living with a healthy child. They must adopt different behaviours in order to lessen the impact on the family structure. Parental coping refers to the parent's specific cognitive and behavioural efforts to reduce or manage a demand on the family system. The aims of this study were: to describe coping in a cohort of parents of children with JIA; to determine whether quality of life is associated with parental coping; to explore whether socio-demographic factors such as child's age, family socioeconomic status and family structure are associated with parental coping. One hundred eighty-two parents caring for a child with JIA completed a postal survey at three times over a one-year period, which included the Juvenile Arthritis Quality of Life Questionnaire (JAQQ), the Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP) and questionnaires describing socio-demographic characteristics. Linear mixed models were employed to analyse the association between the child's quality of life and parental coping. Mean total QoL scores (JAQQ) showed that children experienced difficulty in completing specified activities at most just below 25% of the time and results fall off slightly following the 6 month time point. Mean parental coping scores for the CHIP subscales at baseline were 38.4 ± 9.0, 33.4 ± 11.6, 16.5 ± 6.1, for Maintaining Family Integration (maximum score 57), Maintaining Social Support (maximum score 54) and Understanding the Medical Situation (maximum score 24), respectively. Understanding the Medical Situation was deemed most useful. The child's QoL was associated with parental coping. Parents of children with greater psychosocial dysfunction used more coping behaviours related to Understanding the Medical Situation (β coefficient, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.01, 1.45). These findings underscore the importance of helping parents of children with JIA better understand their child's medical situation.