A Clinic-Based Interdisciplinary Intervention for Parents of Children with Cancer

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The impact of pediatric cancer exerts system-wide influences, which places both children and their parents at risk for compromised adjustment from the time of diagnosis through survivorship. Parents serve as primary caregivers for their child following the diagnosis of pediatric cancer, and as such, they face substantial difficulties in not only adjusting to their child's diagnosis, but also in negotiating an arduous and lengthy treatment course. To date, only a handful of studies have sought to evaluate the benefits of comprehensive psychosocial interventions for parents of children with cancer. This emerging literature suggests that psychosocial interventions indeed have the potential to promote coping efforts and ameliorate psychological distress in parents, and that interventions taking place soon after the child's diagnosis may be superior to those that occur post-treatment. Thus, the current project is a pilot study that will assess the feasibility and acceptability of implementing a clinic-based interdisciplinary (psychology and nursing) intervention for parents of children newly diagnosed with cancer. Parents will be randomly assigned at baseline to either the interdisciplinary intervention group (IG) or the treatment as usual (TAU) group. The 6-module, 12-session interdisciplinary intervention will focus on teaching parents skills to help them manage their uncertainty. The intervention will alternate weeks with 6 in-clinic sessions delivered by a psychology clinician, coupled with 6 telephone sessions delivered by a nurse interventionist in between the clinic sessions. The current study is guided by the following primary aims: 1) to assess the feasibility and acceptability of implementing a 12-session, clinic-based, interdisciplinary intervention for parents of children newly diagnosed with cancer; 2) to estimate effect sizes for the intervention in reducing parental psychological distress, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), caregiver burden, and illness uncertainty. Secondary, exploratory aims include: 1) to assess whether illness uncertainty mediates the effect of the intervention on parent psychological distress, PTSS, and caregiver burden; and 2) to assess whether the intervention exerts an indirect effect on the child's emotional and behavioral functioning. Parents will complete measures of psychological distress, PTSS, caregiver burden, illness uncertainty, and their child's emotional and behavioral functioning at three time points: baseline, and 1-month, and 3-months post-treatment. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The current study is an intervention designed to help reduce parents' distress associated with their child's recent diagnosis of cancer. The intervention will include the expertise of both psychologists and nurses in teaching parents skills to help manage their uncertainty about their child's illness.