Enhancing Connections: Helping the mother with breast cancer support her child

Principal Investigator: Janice Post-White, Co-PI, Lewis, PI

Funding Source: RO1 NCI/NIH

Grant Period:  Completed

Abstract: In 2006, an estimated 212,920 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer. An estimated 22% will be child-rearing, meaning that 47,000 - 94,000 children will be potentially impacted by their mother’s diagnosis. Evidence suggests that the diagnosed mother's depressed mood may affect her child's adjustment, but no one has examined the relationship between the mother's depressed mood and her child's illness-related concerns. The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between mother’s self report of anxiety and depressive symptoms, child’s age, gender and behavioral adjustment and child’s illness-related concerns. We hypothesized that children, whose mothers reported higher levels of depressive symptoms, would have more total illness-related concerns. The design was a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional sample of 155 women with stage I, II, or III breast cancer and their 155 school age children and young adolescents. The child's total illness related concerns, the dependent variables in the study, were measured by a 93-item self-report measure, The About My Mother's Illness Scale (AMMI), which yields 3 summary subscales: treatment-related concerns, existential concerns, and family-related concerns. Maternal depressed mood was measured by the CES-D and child’s behavioral adjustment was measured by the CBCL (4/18). Results suggest that child’s age and gender did not significantly predict a greater number of total illness-related, treatment-related, existential, or family-related concerns. Adjusting for other variables, maternal depressed mood significantly predicted greater numbers of total illness related concerns in the children, (b=.704, SE =.281, t =2.508, p=0.01). Analysis by subscales revealed that maternal depressed mood significantly predicted a greater number of the child’s family related concerns, (b =0.305, SE =0 .077, t =3.963, p=.0001).