Children's psychosocial functioning and parents' quality of life in paediatric short stature: The mediating role of caregiving stress

ConclusionsThese results suggest that, along with growth hormone treatments, multidisciplinary interventions in paediatric endocrinology should be family‐centred, by targeting both the children's psychosocial functioning and the parents' stress, in order to improve individual and family adaptation.Key Practitioner Message Height‐related quality of life impairments and more internalizing problems in children and adolescents with short stature increase caregiving stress, which in turn has a negative impact on parents' quality of life, independently of patients' diagnosis, treatment status, and current height deviation. In addition to growth hormone treatment, multidisciplinary interventions in the context of paediatric short stature should target the children's and adolescents' psychosocial functioning, as well as provide the parents with cognitive and behavioural strategies to manage their child's physical, emotional, social, and behavioural problems. Caregiving stress should be routinely assessed and selected as a strategic intervention target for family‐centred psychosocial interventions aimed at promoting parents' adaptation outcomes (e.g., quality of life). Psychosocial interventions should prioritize the children and adolescents who had never been treated with growth hormone and who have current short stature, as well as the parents of children with idiopathic short stature and current short stature.
Source: Clinical Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research