Effect of Parent’s Terminal Illness on Their Children

Abstract

When parents are diagnosed with terminal illness, their children experience significant distress. There is little infor¬mation regarding the nature of this distress particularly when a parent is diagnosed with advanced stage of terminal illness. Aim of the study: This study is a descriptive study aimed to assess the effect of parent’s terminal illness on their children. Settings: The study was conducted at Medical Departments and Intensive Care Units in El Demerdash University Hospital and Radiology Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Treatment Center“Cobalt”afiliated to Ain Shams University Hospitals. Subjects: The study subjects included a convenient sample of 62 children of terminally ill parents from both gender, aged from 6 to 18 years and free from any physical and mental health problems. Tools of the study: Data was collected through: (I) a structured interviewing questionnaire format including; data regarding characteristics of the studied children and their parents, children’s needs satisfaction, health problems, (II) Parental Illness Relationship Impact Scale to assess the impact of illness across four subscales, including; the relationships between the child and his/her terminal ill parent, other parent, sibling and peers and (III) Perceived Stress Scale to measure the degree to which the child experiences psychological stress. Results: the mean age of the studied children was 12.03±4.5 years. The majority of the studied children’s were affected their physical and psychological needs satisfaction as a result from their par¬ent’s terminal illness. Also, there were statistical significant differences between children’s age and their perceived stress (P < 0.001) while there were no statistically significant differences between children’s level of education & ranking and their perceived stress (P> 0.005). Conclusion: of the study revealed that most of children had physical, psychological and social problems. Additionally, there was a significant relationship between children’s behaviors and their parents’ terminal illness. Recommendations: Accordingly, it was recommended that based on the findings of the study, supporting programs for children of terminal ill parents are needed.