The psychosocial status of children who have a parent with cancer.

Abstract

12083 Background: While numerous studies have investigated the psychosocial status of children affected by childhood cancer, the number of studies investigating this situation in children whose parents have cancer is extremely limited. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and causes of emotional and behavioral problems in children whose parents have cancer. Methods: We conducted the study in the medical oncology outpatient clinics between February and April in 2025. We included 73 children who have a parent diagnosed with cancer (case group) and an age- and gender-matched control group from healthy 59 children between the ages of 8-16. We subjected all the participants to the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS), recording their age, gender, parent gender and age, educational status, duration and severity of disease, number of siblings. Results: No statistically significant difference was found between the groups in terms of age, gender, education level, parent's age, gender, education level, and number of siblings (p>0.001). The case group exhibited significantly elevated anxiety (p<0.001) and depression scores (p=0.002), along with higher total scale scores (p<0.001), in comparison to the control group . Correlation analyses revealed weak but statistically significant positive correlations between age and total anxiety, depression, and total score in the case group (p= 0.010). Further examination of anxiety subdimensions showed similarly weak yet significant correlations with PaD, SAD, and OCD (p<0.001). The females within the case group exhibited significantly higher anxiety (p=0.030) and depression (p=0.035) scores, and higher total scale score (p=0.025) compared to males. Significant differences were observed in anxiety scores (p=0.018) and total scale scores (p=0.047) according to parental education level, with the highest scores consistently found among children whose parents held a master’s degree. No significant differences were observed in anxiety, depression, or total scale scores according to the child’s educational level, parent age, whether the patient was the father or the mother, disease duration and severity, and sibling status. Conclusions: Children of cancer patients are affected by their parents' health problems. These children should be considered in light of the “comprehensive approach to cancer”. It should be noted that these children may need psychological rehabilitation at least as much as their parents with cancer.