Caregiver Emotion Socialization & Child Adjustment in Context of Pediatric Cancer

Abstract

The current study assessed parent emotion socialization as a potential protective factor for child adjustment during the first year of pediatric cancer treatment and examined whether this association varied as a function of treatment intensity and child age. Families of children newly diagnosed with cancer (N = 159; Mage = 5.6 years; range = 2-17 years) were recruited from two children’s hospitals to participate in a one-year longitudinal study. Multilevel models were used to test whether specific dimensions of parent meta-emotion philosophy (PMEP; i.e., awareness and acceptance of their own negative emotions and awareness, acceptance, and coaching of their child’s negative emotions) were associated with the level and trajectory of child psychopathology, with treatment intensity and child age as moderators. The trajectory of children’s symptom levels over the course of the year differed depending on parent acceptance of their own and their children’s negative emotions; other PMEP dimensions did not predict child adjustment at the end of the first year. Treatment intensity acted as a moderator between all PMEP dimensions and internalizing symptoms at the end of the year. Although caregiver awareness, acceptance, and coaching of negative emotions seems to be adaptive for children undergoing less intense treatment, these approaches may be less effective in the face of high-intensity treatment.