Feasibility of a Couple-based Intervention for Parents of Children with Cancer

描述（由申请人提供）：有一个癌症孩子的夫妇从诊断到生存都面临着多重和普遍的压力。他们必须处理自己和孩子的情绪困扰，并在孩子的疾病强加给他们的日常责任之间周旋。生一个患有癌症的孩子会使夫妻关系紧张，并可能导致关系紧张。此外，父母作为一对夫妇对孩子癌症的反应方式可能最终影响到父母、孩子和家庭系统的调整。尽管在儿童癌症的背景下，夫妇的功能的重要性，迄今为止，还没有研究的夫妇为基础的干预癌症儿童的父母。拟议的研究评估了新开发的基于夫妇的认知行为干预的可行性和初步疗效。参与者将是30对夫妇，他们的孩子正在接受首次癌症诊断的治疗。夫妇将被随机分配，以2：1的比例分配到以夫妇为基础的关系增强干预或教育/支持控制条件，这两个条件都将包括六个，一个小时 电话会议。夫妇为基础的关系增强干预将为夫妇提供经过充分验证的关系技能培训，以有效沟通和解决与照顾癌症儿童有关的问题，维护他们自己的夫妻关系，并作为个人相互支持。本研究的主要目的是确定基于夫妻的关系增强是否可行和可接受的夫妇，以及它是否会导致改善他们的关系功能，个人功能的合作伙伴，和父母的功能相比，注意力控制条件。还将评估对儿童和家庭功能的影响。治疗前后进行的评估将包括夫妇对他们的关系功能、个人心理健康、父母功能、儿童健康和整体家庭功能的报告，沿着录音的癌症相关对话，这些对话将根据伴侣支持和沟通技巧的维度进行评级。这项研究的结果有可能导致建立一种有效的干预措施，从而改善夫妇和家庭对儿童癌症的适应。如果成功，我们将提出一个后续的，更大的随机对照试验，包括长期随访。 公共卫生相关性：有一个癌症孩子的夫妇从诊断到生存都面临着多重和普遍的压力。尽管夫妇在家庭适应儿童癌症方面发挥着核心作用，但迄今为止还没有以夫妇为基础的儿童癌症干预研究。这项研究可能会显着提高我们的理解，如何帮助夫妇在重要的角色，他们履行作为一对夫妇，个人和父母，因为他们适应有一个孩子患有癌症。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Couples who have a child with cancer are faced with multiple and pervasive stressors from the time of diagnosis through survivorship. They must deal with their own emotional distress as well as that of their children, and juggle their usual responsibilities with those imposed by the child's illness. Having a child with cancer strains couples' relationships and can lead to relationship distress. Moreover, the way in which parents respond as a couple to the child's cancer may ultimately impact the adjustment of each parent, the child, and the family system. Despite the importance of couple functioning in the context of childhood cancer, to date there have been no studies of couple-based interventions for parents of children with cancer. The proposed study evaluates the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a newly developed, cognitive-behavioral couple-based intervention. Participants will be 30 couples whose children are being treated for a first diagnosis of cancer. Couples will be randomly assigned with a 2:1 allocation to the Couple-Based Relationship Enhancement intervention or an Education/Support control condition, both of which will consist of six, one-hour telephone-based sessions. The Couple-Based Relationship Enhancement intervention will provide couples with training in well-validated relationship skills to communicate effectively and problem-solve about issues related to caring for their child with cancer, maintaining their own couple's relationship, and supporting each other as individuals. The primary aims of the study involve determining whether the Couple-Based Relationship Enhancement is feasible and acceptable to couples, and whether it will lead to improvements in their relationship functioning, individual functioning for both partners, and parental functioning compared to the attention control condition. The impact on child and family functioning will also be assessed. Assessments conducted before and after treatment will include couples' reports of their relationship functioning, individual psychological well-being, parental functioning, child well-being, and overall family functioning, along with audio recorded cancer-related conversations that will be rated on dimensions of partner support and communication skills. Findings from this study have the potential to result in the creation of an effective intervention that will lead to improved couple and family adjustment to childhood cancer. If successful, we will propose a subsequent, larger RCT that includes long-term follow-up. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Couples who have a child with cancer are faced with multiple and pervasive stressors from the time of diagnosis through survivorship. Despite the central role that couples play in families' adjustment to childhood cancer, to date there has been no studies of couple- based interventions for pediatric cancer. This study might significantly improve our understanding of how to assist couples in important roles that they fulfill as a couple, individual, and parents, as they adapt to having a child with cancer.