Maternal perception of a child with cancer
Ida P. Opalińska
Faculty of Psychology, University of WarsawWarsaw, Poland
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Apr 01, 2022
About this article
Article Category: Original research
Published Online: Apr 01, 2022
Page range: 95 - 101
Received: Apr 07, 2021
Accepted: Jul 16, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34763/jmotherandchild.20212502.d-21-00010
Keywords
© 2021 Ida Opalińska, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Relationship between demographic traits and elements of mother’s representation of the child
| Element of the representation | Result |
|---|---|
| Impulsiveness | more often boys than girls (V = 0.38, p < 0.01) |
| Interest in computer games | more often boys than girls (V = 0.47, p <0.01) |
| Interest in movies | more often boys than girls (V = 0.28, p <0.05) |
| Helpfulness | more often the oldest children than youngest or middle (V = 0.50, p <0.01) |
| Regret | more often single mothers than women who had someone helping with their care (V = 0.55, p <0.05) |
Information about the experimental and control groups
| Mothers of oncologically ill children | Mothers of healthy children | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of mothers | 30 | 25 |
| Mothers’ age | 21 to 54 years old (M = 38. 93, SD = 8.71) | 23 to 56 years old (M = 38.04, SD = 8.27) |
| Number of children | 1 to 5 children: | 1 to 5 children: |
| • most mothers had 1 or | • most mothers had 1 or | |
| 2 children | 2 children | |
| • 6 mothers had 3 | • 5 mothers had 3 | |
| children | children | |
| • 3 mothers had 4 children | • 1 mother had 4 children | |
| • 2 mothers had 5 children | • 2 mothers had 5 children | |
| Age of the children | 2 to 18 years old (M = 10.70, SD = 5.02) | 2 to 18 years old (M = 9.82, SD = 4.93) |
| Sex of the children | 16 boys and 14 girls | 15 boys and 10 girls |
| Birth order of the child | • most children were the oldest or youngest in the family | • most children were the oldest or youngest in the family |
| • 8 were the only child | • 8 were the only child | |
| • 1 was the middle child | • 1 was the middle child | |
| Was the mother the only | • Yes - 16 mothers | • Yes - 5 mothers |
| person to take care of the child? | • No - 14 mothers | • No - 20 mothers |
| Other caregivers of the child, who helped the mothers | • fathers and grandparents (most of the mothers) | • fathers and grandparents (most of the mothers) |
| • other family members | • other family members | |
| • friend of the mother (1 person) | • friend who had a child of similar age (1 person) | |
| • daughter's boyfriend (1 person) | ||
| Time since diagnosis | 2 months to 9 years | - |
| Chronic disease experience in the family | • the child or another person in the family had already suffered from a chronic disease (17 mothers) | - |
| • the child's cancer was the first such situation in the family (12 mothers) | ||
| • no answer (1 mother) | ||
Differences between the representation of the oncologically ill child and the healthy child
| Element of the representation | Frequency in representation of ill child compared to healthy child |
|---|---|
| Impulsiveness | less often (chi square = 5.40, p <0.05) |
| Independence | less often (chi square = 5.11, p <0.05) |
| Need of food | less often (chi square = 13.99, p <0.001) |
| Need of recognition of others | less often (chi square = 9.63, p <0.01) |
| Fear | more often (chi square = 6.42, p <0.05) |