Otimismo, coping e ganho percebido em cuidadores de crianças com câncer

• Ano de defesa: 2016
• Autor(a) principal: Pagung, Larissa Bessert
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo; BR; Mestrado em Psicologia; UFES; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia
• Palavras-chave em Português: Ajustamento (Psicologia); Cuidadores; Otimismo; Crescimento pós-traumático; Câncer em crianças; Coping; Psicologia; 159.9
• Link de acesso: http://repositorio.ufes.br/handle/10/6817

Child cancer is considered a potential stressor not only for children, but also for their family members. To cope with the disease of the child, parents and / or caregivers need to use coping strategies that will protect family adjustment. In this context, positive personal attributes, like optimism, can contribute to a more adaptive coping, so that it is possible to notice some benefits in adversity. In order to analyze the relationship between optimism, coping and benefit finding in caregivers of children with cancer, 60 main caregivers who were accompanying their children in treatment, at a referral hospital in Grande Vitória, ES attended. After the permission to participate in the study, participants answered the instruments on: optimism (Life Orientation Test - LOT-R); coping (Coping Scale); and benefit finding (Posttraumatic Growth Inventory). Socio-demographic and clinical variables, as determined by the Socio-demographic Questionnaire and Registration Protocol of the clinical characteristics of the child, were also obtained. The data relating to standardized instruments met the established normative criteria and were submitted to the analysis of the descriptive and inferential statistics to verify the relationship between variables. Regarding optimism, it was found that most caregivers reported an optimistic view of life. The coping analysis showed that coping categories of higher adaptive order obtained the highest average when compared to maladaptive categories, with emphasis on problem solving. It was found that the adversity of having a child with cancer, caregivers reported perceived benefits, especially in the field of spiritual development. There were relationships between: optimism and coping (more optimistic caregivers reported less submission and less strategies of coping categories of high maladaptive order); optimism and benefit finding (caregivers with an 13 optimistic life orientation realized more resources and personal skills); coping and benefit finding (caregivers who reported more search for support and less self-reliance, helplessness and maladaptive strategies, noticed greater strengthening of interpersonal relationships); and caregivers who found themselves more competent, reported less self-reliance, but higher spiritual development. The child’s clinical variables and marital status of caregivers also related with optimism, coping and benefit finding: married caregivers noticed greater gain, especially in the strengthening of interpersonal relationships; caregivers of children with solid tumors reported more problem solving and negotiation; caregivers of children diagnosed with lymphoma reported more delegation and opposition; caregivers of children out of chemotherapy reported more competence, delegation, and greater benefit finding; and caregivers whose children had a longer time treatment, were more optimistic and reported less anxiety, more power to deal with the stressor, more willing to be away from it and greater benefit finding. Interventions with caregivers of children with cancer should be thought to favor an adaptive coping, valuing individual characteristics that can assist this process, in order to allow for a reinterpretation of the experience of having a child with cancer and growth through adversity.