IMPACT OF MATERNAL BREAST CANCER ON CHILDREN

这项拟议的研究利用家庭危机的发生，母亲乳腺癌(BC)的诊断，作为一项自然主义实验，评估应激性生活事件或条件对儿童适应和幸福的影响。选择卑诗省进行研究是因为它是最常见的癌症形式之一，也是育儿期间女性死亡的原因之一。此外，与儿童生活中发生的许多其他应激事件不同，母亲BC的诊断与儿童、母亲或家庭先前的心理社会特征无关。先前的研究表明，父母的身体疾病对整个家庭都构成了挑战，可能会增加孩子经历情绪、社交和行为困难的风险。不幸的是，这一领域已发表的工作受到研究设计的限制，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。最近被诊断为BC的妇女，有学龄儿童(8-15岁)将被招募参加。对于母亲患有BC的每个目标儿童，将招募母亲没有患癌症的相同种族、相同性别、年龄相似的班级比较同伴(MCCP)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)的多种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。比较母亲被诊断患有BC和MCCP的儿童的社会功能。具体目标2。比较母亲被诊断患有BC和MCCP的儿童的情绪幸福感。具体目标3：评估患有BC的妇女的子女所表现出的社会功能和情感健康方面的困难是否受家庭背景变量的影响。具体目标4.采用病例对照设计，评估母体BC对儿童社会功能和情绪幸福的影响是否受到儿童人口统计和疾病特定变量的影响。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儿童的价值的信念，以及他们在家庭中讨论这些因素的实际尝试。研究癌症特异性沟通与更广泛的家庭背景和儿童结局变量之间的关系。

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.