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Effect of a group intervention for children and their parents who have cancer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2017

Mariko Kobayashi ,
Sue P. Heiney ,
Kaori Osawa ,
Miwa Ozawa  and
Eisuke Matsushima
Mariko Kobayashi*
Affiliation:
Section of Liaison Psychiatry and Palliative Medicine, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan The Open University of Japan, Chiba, Japan
Sue P. Heiney
Affiliation:
College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
Kaori Osawa
Affiliation:
Tokyo Kyosai Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Miwa Ozawa
Affiliation:
St. Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Eisuke Matsushima
Affiliation:
Section of Liaison Psychiatry and Palliative Medicine, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Mariko Kobayashi, Section of Liaison Psychiatry and Palliative Medicine, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan. E-mail: mkobayashi@ouj.ac.jp.
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Abstract

Objective:

Although support programs for children whose parents have cancer have been described and evaluated, formal research has not been conducted to document outcomes. We adapted a group intervention called CLIMB®, originally developed in the United States, and implemented it in Tokyo, Japan, for school-aged children and their parents with cancer. The purpose of this exploratory pilot study was to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and impact of the Japanese version of the CLIMB® Program on children's stress and parents' quality of life and psychosocial distress.

Methods:

We enrolled children and parents in six waves of replicate sets for the six-week group intervention. A total of 24 parents (23 mothers and 1 father) diagnosed with cancer and 38 school-aged children (27 girls and 11 boys) participated in our study. Intervention fidelity, including parent and child satisfaction with the program, was examined. The impact of the program was analyzed using a quasiexperimental within-subject design comparing pre- and posttest assessments of children and parents in separate analyses.

Results:

Both children and parents experienced high levels of satisfaction with the program. Children's posttraumatic stress symptoms related to a parent's illness decreased after the intervention as measured by the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder–Reaction Index. No difference was found in children's psychosocial stress. The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy scores indicated that parents' quality of life improved after the intervention in all domains except for physical well-being. However, no differences were found in parents' psychological distress and posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Significance of results:

Our results suggest that the group intervention using the CLIMB® Program relieved children's posttraumatic stress symptoms and improved parents' quality of life. The intervention proved the feasibility of delivering the program using manuals and training. Further research is needed to provide more substantiation for the benefits of the program.

Keywords

Group interventionChildrenParental cancerPosttraumatic stressQuality of life
Type
Original Articles
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 15 , Issue 5 , October 2017 , pp. 575 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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