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PTSD and psychological distress in Icelandic parents of chronically ill children: Does social support have an effect on parental distress?
Author(s) -
GUD̄MUNDSDÓTTIR HULDA SOLRUN,
ELKLIT ASK,
GUD̄MUNDSDÓTTIR DRIFA BJÖRK
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2006.00512.x
Subject(s) - icelandic , distress , psychology , clinical psychology , subclinical infection , social support , psychological distress , checklist , disease , psychiatry , medicine , mental health , psychotherapist , philosophy , linguistics , cognitive psychology
The purpose of the study was to investigate psychological distress and the prevalence of PTSD among Icelandic parents of chronically ill children, and the potential effects of social support on distress, at two points in time. The Impact on Family scale (IFS), the Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC), the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) and the Crisis Support Scale (CSS) were completed by 105 parents of children with various diseases (69 mothers and 36 fathers). Despite the heterogeneity of the sample in terms of disease type, PTSD was present in 13.2% of the parents and an additional 28.6% had subclinical PTSD. Time since diagnosis, length of hospitalizations and disease‐related daily care predicted 40% of the HTQ total score.