La enfermedad reumática infantiluna primera exploración sobre el estado psicológico paterno

Zusammenfassung

The studies on the psychological and emotional consequences of pediatric rheumatic illness for parents of these children have been no conclusive, at all. That is, there are studies which point to the existence of psychological problems and, on the contrary there are studies which point to a satisfactory status. The aim of this study, then, relies on a first exploration of parents of children and adolescents with a rheumatic illness which attend the Pediatric Rheumatology Unit in one of the main Spanish hospitals to see which one of these conflicting results describe our subjects. Specifically, the main aims of the study were: a) to know the psychological status of mothers and fathers; and b) to explore if there were significant differences between mothers and fathers. 97 fathers and 111 mothers were contacted. That is, our final sample is composed of 208 subjects, parents of children with a rheumatic illness. Parents were evaluated through several instruments: The SCL-90-R, The Beck Depression Inventory and the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory from Spielberger. Main results were: a) from a general point of view we cannot consider our sample to be a clinical population, as the parents appear within normal ranges in the scales and subscales employed; b) mothers, compared with fathers, showed higher and statistically significant psychological scores in most of the scales and subscales. The paper ends with a discussion about the results, and with the advantages, disadvantages and future research lines with the aim of developing a cognitive-behavioral protocol for addressing the psychological needs of these families.