The Moderating Effect of Parenting on Adaptation of Children with Leukemia

Parents’ attitudes and practices may support the children’s reactions to treatments for leukaemia and their general adjustment. This study has two aims: to explore parenting depending on the child’s age and to develop and test a model on how family processes influence the psycho-social development of children with leukaemia. Patients were 118 leukemic children and their parents recruited at the Haematology–Oncologic Clinic of the Department of Paediatrics, University of Padua. All parents were Caucasian with a mean age of 37.39 years (SD = 6.03). Children’s mean age was 5.89 years (SD = 4.21). After the signature of the informed consent, the parents were interviewed using the EFI-C from which we derived Parenting dimension and three parental perceptions on the child’s factors. One year later, the clinical psychologist interviewed again parents using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). The analyses revealed the presence of a significant difference in parenting by the child’s age: Infants required a higher and more intensive parenting. The child’s coping with medical procedures at the second week after the diagnosis, controlled for parenting effect, impacted upon the child’s adaptation one-year post diagnosis. Specific intervention programmes are proposed in order to help children more at risk just after the diagnosis of developmental delays.

The Moderating Effect of Parenting on Adaptation of Children With Leukemia

Parents’ attitudes and practices may support the children’s reactions to treatments for leukemia and their general adjustment. This study has two aims: to explore parenting depending on child's age and to develop and test a model on how family processes influence the psycho-social development of children with leukemia. Patients were 118 leukemic children and their parents recruited at the Haematology-Oncologic Clinic of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Padua. All parents were Caucasian with a mean age of 37.39 years (SD = 6.03). Children’s mean age was 5.89 years (SD = 4.21). After the signature of the informed consent, the parents were interviewed using the EFI-C from which we derived Parenting dimension and 3 parental perceptions on child’s factors. One year later, the clinical psychologist interviewed again parents using the VABS scales. The analyses revealed the presence of a significant difference in parenting by child’s age: Infants required a higher and more intensive parenting. Child’s coping to medical procedures at the second week after the diagnosis, controlled for parenting effect, impacted upon child’s adaptation one-year post diagnosis. Specific intervention programmes are proposed in order to help children more at risk just after the diagnosis for developmental delays.

A Comparative Study of the Two Dimensions of Parenting Style and their Effects on the Self-Concept of Pre-Adolescents

Self-concept of adolescents has been one of the personality constructs that has attracted the attention of psychologists and educationists the world over. Since it is crystallized during adolescence, impacting the self-worth of youth, it becomes imperative to look into determinants of this variable in an attempt to protect their mental health. Among a myriad different factors which are thought to be responsible for influencing self-concept of teens, parenting styles has played a pivotal role. The present research endeavored to study the effect of parenting styles on the self-concept of pre-adolescents with respect to two dimensions of the namely: responsiveness and demandingness of both parents. The results indicated a significant difference in the self-concept of pre-adolescents depending on the parenting dimension of mothers/fathers. The study attempted to explore the potential benefits of either parenting dimension in boosting the self-concept of gen next.

Socialization and Parenting in Chinese Cultural Context

This paper describes the parenting characteristics and behaviour among Chinese families. Specifically it explores some alternative parenting concepts which may be culturally more accurate in describing the non-western parenting behaviour among Chinese parents and children. It outlines key research literature on Chinese parenting in relations to 1) parenting goals and beliefs among Chinese parents and, 2) the notion of Guan and ‘training’ as a parenting dimension in Chinese families. This paper concludes that a further exploration on non-western parenting is warranted for future family research and thus its findings are deemed to be resourceful for multicultural societies.