IMPACT OF MATERNAL BREAST CANCER ON CHILDREN

本研究利用家庭危机的发生，母亲乳腺癌（BC）的诊断，作为一个自然实验来评估压力的生活事件或条件对儿童的适应和福祉的影响。选择BC作为研究对象，是因为它是最常见的癌症之一，也是育龄妇女死亡的原因。此外，与儿童生活中发生的许多其他压力事件不同，母体BC的诊断与儿童、母亲或家庭先前的社会心理特征无关。先前的研究表明，父母的身体疾病会给整个家庭带来挑战，并可能增加孩子经历情感、社交和行为困难的风险。不幸的是，在这一领域发表的工作受到研究设计的限制，这些研究设计没有包括适当的比较样本，也没有从家庭以外的来源获得相关数据。新近诊断为BC且有学龄儿童（8-15岁）的妇女将被招募参加。对于每个母亲患有BC的目标儿童，将招募相同种族，相同性别，年龄相近的匹配教室比较同伴（MCCP），其母亲没有患癌症，作为病例对照。将从儿童教室（教师和同龄人）和家庭（母亲、父亲和孩子）的多个来源获得相同的数据，以测试群体差异、社会功能和情感健康。具体目标1。比较母亲被诊断为BC和mccp的儿童的社会功能。具体目标2。比较母亲被诊断为BC和mccp的孩子的情绪幸福感。具体目标3。评估BC女性的孩子在社会功能和情感健康方面的困难是否由家庭背景变量介导。具体目标4。利用病例对照设计来评估母亲BC对儿童社会功能和情绪健康的影响是否受到儿童人口统计学和疾病特定变量的调节。具体目标5。收集关于BC诊断、治疗和预后的家庭沟通数据，包括父母对这些信息对孩子的价值的看法，以及他们在家庭中讨论这些因素的实际尝试。检查癌症特异性交流与更广泛的家庭背景和儿童结局变量的关系。

The proposed research utilizes the occurrence of a family crisis, diagnosis of a mother's breast cancer (BC), as a naturalistic experiment to evaluate the impact of stressful life events or conditions on the adjustment and well-being of children. BC is selected for study because it is one of the most common forms of cancer and causes of death among women in their child rearing years. Additionally, unlike many other stressful events occurring in the life of a child, the diagnosis of maternal BC is not associated with antecedent psychosocial characteristics of the child, mother, or family. Previous research has suggested that parental physical illness challenges the entire family and may increase the risk of children to experience emotional, social, and behavioral difficulties. Unfortunately, published work in this area is limited by research designs that fail to include appropriate comparison samples and do not obtain relevant data from sources outside the family. Women recently diagnosed with BC who have school-aged children (8-15 years) will be recruited for participation. For each target child whose mother has BC, a same race, same gender, and similar-aged matched classroom comparison peer (MCCP) whose mother does not have cancer will be recruited as a case-control. Identical data will be obtained from multiple sources in children's classrooms (teachers and peers) and families' homes (mother, father, and child) to allow tests of group differences social functioning and emotional well-being. Specific Aim number 1. Compare the social functioning of children whose mothers have been diagnosed with BC to MCCPs. Specific Aim number 2. Compare the emotional well- being of children whose mothers have been diagnosed with BC and MCCPs. Specific Aim number 3. Evaluate whether difficulties in social functioning and emotional well-being evidenced by children of women with BC are mediated by family context variables. Specific Aim number 4. Utilize a case controlled design to evaluate whether the impact of maternal BC on children's social functioning and emotional well-being is moderated by child demographic and disease specific variables. Specific Aim number 5. Collect data regarding family communication about the BC diagnois, treatment, and prognosis in terms of parental beliefs about the value of such information to children and their actual attempts to discuss these factors within the family. Examine associations of cancer-specific communication with broader family context and child outcome variables.