A prospective study of child adjustment to cardiac procedures: the contributions of coping and recovery expectations

• Main Author: Gilbert, Cheryl Alison
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4696

This study had three purposes. One, it examined the impact of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) on both children's and parents' psychosocial adjustment and children's coping as compared to healthy controls. Two, it looked at the roles child pre-operative psychosocial adjustment, coping, and expectations for recovery play in predicting postoperative and in-hospital adjustment, short-term recovery, and fimctional disability and three, it investigated the relationship between parental pre-operative adjustment, coping, expectations for children's recovery, and post-operative adjustment. In total, 39 children and their parents participated in the study. Twenty-one children diagnosed with CHD who were undergoing either surgery or catheterization comprised the cardiac group and 18 healthy children, matched on age, gender, and location comprised the control sample. Results demonstrated that children with moderate levels of CHD and their parents are no more vulnerable when confronting life demands than healthy children and their parents. In regard to the second purpose of the study, results showed that child pre-operative adjustment was the best predictor of post-operative adjustment and in-hosptial adjustment, although it played an insignificant role in predicting short-term recovery, or functional disability. Coping and expectations appeared to mediate post-operative behavior problems and in-hospital adjustment. The best predictor of parent post-operative adjustment, the third purpose, was pre-operative adjustment.