Functioning among mothers and fathers of children with juvenile rheumatic disease: a longitudinal study

Examined the adaptation of mothers and fathers of children with juvenile rheumatic disease on two occasions, 1 year apart, using 159 married couples at Time 1, and 111 of these couples at Time 2. A stress and coping model was tested in which parental functioning is determined by ongoing life stressors (patient and spouse dysfunction), family resources, and parents' illness-related coping. Mothers reported more depression than fathers did. However, poorer concurrent functioning among both mothers and fathers was explained partly by patients having more functional disability, pain, and psychosocial problems. In addition, spouse's dysfunction and the parent's use of avoidance coping were related to poorer parental adaptation, both concurrently and 1 year later. The implications of the findings for developing stress and coping models of parental adaptation to having a chronically ill child, and for intervention strategies with parents, patients, and families, are discussed.