Influence of religiosity/spirituality on informal caregivers of children with leukemia

Abstract Faced with diagnosis and treatment of serious illness in children, including oncology, parents, especially mothers, tend to fully assume the demands of care and, consequently, must develop situational coping strategies. In this regard, this descriptive and cross-sectional study sought to identify the use of religious/spiritual coping by informal caregivers of children with acute lymphoid leukemia via the Brief Religious/Spiritual Coping (SRCOPE) scale. A total of 30 informal caregivers participated in the study, presenting high religious/spiritual coping (mean=3.90; SD=0.34) regarding positive methods (mean=3.67; SD=0.48). Finally, results show that mothers use religious/spiritual coping deal with the imposed demands for care, linked to the child’s health condition. This reinforces the possibility of using spirituality and or religiosity as indicators of physical and mental well-being, since the quality of care is closely related to the caregivers’ health.摘要：在儿童重症（含肿瘤类疾病）的诊疗场景中，家长——尤其是母亲——往往会全权承担照护责任，因此必须构建适配情境的应对策略。有鉴于此，本项描述性横断面研究借助简短宗教/灵性应对量表（Brief Religious/Spiritual Coping, SRCOPE），旨在探明急性淋巴细胞白血病患儿的非正式照护者所采用的宗教/灵性应对方式。本研究共纳入30名非正式照护者，其宗教/灵性应对整体水平较高（平均分3.90，标准差0.34），其中正向应对方法维度的平均分为3.67，标准差0.48。研究结果显示，母亲群体通过宗教/灵性应对方式应对照护儿童过程中面临的各项压力，该行为与患儿的健康状况密切相关。本研究进一步证实，可将灵性或宗教信仰作为照护者身心健康的评估指标，因为照护质量与照护者自身健康息息相关。