Role of Parenting Variables and Health-Related Quality of Life in Pediatric Cancer

The purpose of the current study was to assess the relationship between parenting capacity variables, namely parental overprotection, perceived child vulnerability, and parenting stress, and socioecological factors, including family socioeconomic status and parental marital status, and parent-proxy report of child health-related quality of life. Participants were 89 parents of children, ages two to 16 (M = 6.5 years, 57% male, 80.9% Caucasian), who were diagnosed with pediatric cancer. Parent participants completed a demographic form, the parent-proxy report of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 3.0 Cancer Module (PedsQL), Parent Protection Scale (PPS), Child Vulnerability Scale (CVS), and Parenting Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF). A medical chart review was also conducted. Participants were recruited while attending outpatient appointments at the cancer center of a midwestern children's hospital. After controlling for theoretically important demographic factors, results revealed that parent-proxy report of health-related quality of life was negatively related to family socioeconomic status, parental overprotection, perceived child vulnerability, and parenting stress. No significant relationship was found between parent marital status and health-related quality of life. However, older child age also emerged as a significant predictor of poor child health-related quality of life. Overall, these results support the transactional relationship between parent and child adjustment to pediatric cancer. The evident contributions of socioeconomic status, parental overprotection, perceptions of vulnerability, and parenting stress to child disease-specific health-related quality of life may warrant assessment of these variables in parents of children who have been recently diagnosed with cancer.Department of Psycholog