Abstract
This investigation examined the risk-resistance adaptation model for children with sickle cell disease and their primary caregivers. Participants were 55 children, ranging in age from 5 to 16 years with a mean age of 9 years 2 months, diagnosed with sickle cell disease and their primary caregivers, recruited from a university medical center. Measures included adjustment (i.e. primary caregiver and child adjustment), risk factors (i.e. disease and disability, functional independence, and psychosocial stressors), resistance factors (i.e. intrapersonal health locus of control, social-ecological), and stress processing (coping). Primary caregivers' adjustment was associated with developmental coping,changeR2=.08, and child adaptation was associated with an internal health locus of control,changeR2=.22. An indirect effect of primary caregivers' coping on child adjustment was found through influence on primary caregivers' adjustment,changeR2=.11. The findings support research among other chronically ill populations that suggests an association between coping and disease adjustment. The results were interpreted to support the use of theoretically driven models in predicting the adaptation of children with chronic illness and adjustment in their caregivers.
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Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Heart, Lung, and Blood Branch, HL48-482-01.
The authors appreciate the cooperative spirit of the physicians and staff of the Georgia NIH Sickle Cell Center and particularly the kind assistance of Joan Donegan for data collection. Anita L. Hurtig, Ph.D., and Jan Wallander, Ph.D., were consultants for this study.
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Brown, R.T., Lambert, R., Devine, D. et al. Risk-resistance adaptation model for caregivers and their children with sickle cell syndromes. ann. behav. med. 22, 158–169 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02895780
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02895780