How mothers of terminally ill children cope and appraise their life situation

Abstract

Introduction Mothers of terminally ill children experience chronic stress that can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion. A better understanding of their experiences, resources, and vulnerabilities can help plan psychological interventions. Objectives The research is aimed to study mothers’ appraisals of their life situation related to the child’s terminal illness and their coping strategies. Methods Participants: 21 women (aged 26-49) whose children were patients at the hospice. Women answered a set of open-ended questions and completed questionnaires: “Appraisal Criteria of the Difficulty of a Life Situation”, “Types of Orientations in Difficult Situation”, “Ways of Coping Checklist”. Data were analyzed with Pearson’s r. Results Planned coping was associated with evaluations of opportunity (r=0.78) and threat to the future (r=0.61). Despite the deteriorating health status of most of the children, women reported a high degree of subjective control. This might be related to outside help. Participants stated that helping by the family, doctors, and psychologists was essential. Unexpectedly, the “need for a quick and active response” score correlates with that for the coping strategy “fantasizing” (r=0.62). This can be explained by the depletion of resources; deprivation of sleep and active rest is often observed. An important feature is that half of the participants report high self-blame. Conclusions We suggest that self-blame, an analysis of opportunities, and probable future scenarios are important psychotherapy targets for mothers of terminally ill children. The consequences of threat appraisal are twofold: admitting the threat can be painful, but it also mobilizes one’s energy. Funding: The study was funded by RFBR, project number 20-013-00838. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Keywords

• life situation
• coping strategies
• subjective appraisal