Hope, coping, and adjustment among children with sickle cell disease: tests of mediator and moderator models

Tested mediator and moderator models of hope, coping, and adjustment in 39 children with sickle cell disease. In home interviews parents provided information on demographics and functional adjustment. Children self-reported levels of hope, coping strategies, and psychological adjustment. Coping strategies moderated, but did not mediate, the relationship between hope and adjustment. Hope was negatively associated with anxiety when active coping, support coping, and distraction coping was high. Avoidance coping did not moderate the hope-adjustment relationship but was positively related to anxiety. No effects were found for depressive symptoms or for the functional measures of adjustment.