The Relationship Between Social Support and Care Burden and Post-Traumatic Growth in Mothers of Children Hospitalized with Leukemia in Tabriz Pediatric Educational Center, 2020

Abstract

Abstract Social support is one of the effective factors on the family in the management of a child with cancer that can affect the quality of life of parents and how to provide care after diagnosis and during treatment of the child's disease. And help the family cope with the crises caused by the disease. Since limited studies have been conducted on the short-term and long-term consequences of receiving social support in parents. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between social support and the burden of care and post-traumatic growth in mothers of leukemic children as the primary caregiver of the child. Materials and Methods: The present study is a descriptive-correlational study. This study was conducted by available sampling method on 122 mothers whose had children under 14 years of age with leukemia and had been hospitalized between May to December 2021 in the blood ward and blood clinics of the Children's Educational and Medical Center in Tabriz. In present study, Northouse social support tool (1988) was used to measure social support, Zarit Care Burden Scale (1985) was used to measure the care burden, and PTG(1996) Scale was used to measure the post-traumatic growth level. The analysis of the obtained data was done by SPSS25 software using descriptive and inferential statistics methods, Spearman correlation coefficient tests, and independent-t test at the significance level of less than 0.05. Results: The results of the present study show that mothers received a high level of social support. The amount of maternal care was less than average. Also, the mean total score of post-traumatic growth in these mothers was higher than average. The results showed that the highest support received by mothers from the family and the lowest support received from the physician. The highest received support of mothers was from the family and the lowest support was received from the doctor. Based on the findings of this study. Based on the findings of this study, and there was an inverse and also significant relationship between the mean total score of social support and care burden (p = 0.004). And there was a direct and significant relationship between the mean total score of social support and the total score of post-traumatic (p = 0.002). Also Further, there was a direct and significant relationship between mothers’ received spouse support, friend support, physician and nurse support with the total score of post-traumatic growth of mothers (p <0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, mothers who receive adequate social support have a lower burden of care and more post-traumatic growth. Support from the family is the greatest support perceived by mothers. The family has an important role in helping mothers dealing with their child's illness.Also, nursing support is second in importance after family support, which reduces the burden of care and increases the mothers post-traumatic growth, if this support is not comprehensive, it will not be able to reduce the care burden of mothers.Sinc physicians, as one of the caring members of the treatment team, played a lesse role in supporting mothers, Therefore, it seems necessary to develop a training program to inform physicians of the need to play a supportive role.