The role of parental and extrafamilial social support in the psychosocial adjustment of children with a chronically ill father

Abstract

The relationships among illness stress, perceived support, and child psychosocial adjustment were examined for children living with a chronically ill father. Participants included fathers, mothers, and one child from 53 families in which the father had hemophilia and, in some cases, was HIV seropositive. Objective indicators of severity of illness and subjective measures of the physical and psychological impact of illness were used as sources of children's stress. Results indicated that the impact of illness, but not the severity of illness itself, related to child psychosocial adjustment. Main effects were observed for parental support on child- and parent-reported internalizing problems and stress-buffering effects were obtained for parental support and extrafamilial support on parent-reported internalizing problems. Parental support also demonstrated a stress-buffering effect for child-reported depression. Assessment and intervention implications for behavioral clinicians and researchers are discussed.