Well-being, Self-Transcendence, and Resilience in Parental Caregivers of Children with Cancer

Abstract

The specific aims for this study were to: (a) describe positive and negative well-being in parental caregivers of children with cancer, (b) examine if parental caregivers' personal factors (i.e., resilience and/or demographic characteristics) and child-related contextual factors (i.e., ill child's cancer characteristics and/or demographic characteristics) predict parental caregivers' positive and negative well-being, and (c) test if self-transcendence mediates the relationship between resilience and well-being (positive and negative) in parental caregivers of children with cancer. Eighty parental caregivers whose children were diagnosed with any type of childhood cancer since at least two months prior to study start participated and completed a demographic instrument, the General Well-Being Schedule, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the State scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Self-Transcendence Scale, and the Brief Resilience Scale. Descriptive statistics were used to describe sample demographics, levels of positive and negative well-being, self-transcendence levels, and resilience levels. Standard multiple regression was used to examine predictors of well-being. Baron and Kenny's three-step mediation analysis was used to test if self-transcendence mediated the relationship between resilience and well-being (positive and negative). Both positive and negative well-being exist in parental caregivers of children with cancer as 47% of parental caregivers were in the `positive well-being' category with total General Well-Being Schedule scores above the positive well-being cutoff of 73, 36.3% were in the `depressed' category with total scores above the depression cutoff of 16 on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, and 45% had scores that exceeded the mean anxiety score of 39.64 on the State Scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Instrument. None of the child-related contextual factors were found to predict positive and negative well-being in parental caregivers of children with cancer. Resilience positively predicted general well-being and negatively predicted depression and anxiety in parental caregivers of children with cancer. Satisfaction with current financial status negatively predicted depression. Employment status negatively predicted anxiety such that those who were not employed had significantly lower anxiety than those who were employed part-time and full-time. Self-transcendence mediated the relationship between resilience and positive and negative well-being respectively.