Abstract
Introduction Disease and hospitalization can be the first crisis that children encounter. Resilience is the ability to overcome adversities. Lack of resilience in children with medical traumatic stress may contribute to poor adjustment, slow recovery, and disruptive behaviors.
Objectives To explore parental resilience and resilience among children and adolescent after hospitalization
Methods This is a prospective study in parents of children and adolescents discharge from the pediatric ward between June 2019 and October 2020 at the Chiang Mai University Hospital. The parents were enrolled and completed questionnaires assessing their resilience and resilience and quality of life of their children during admission (T1) and 2-months post-discharge (T2). Sociodemographic and medical data also collected.
Result Parents of 56 children admitted to the pediatric ward and 16 children admitted to pediatric intensive care units (PICU). There was no difference in parental resilience scores at T1 and T2 of both groups. However, the parental resilience of children admitted to the pediatric ward was significantly higher over time, especially emotional stability and problem-solving skills component. Children in both groups had higher total difficulties scores and prosocial scores after discharged, however, the scores were not statistical significance. Children admitted to the pediatric ward had a more improved quality of life at 2-month post-discharge than the PICU group (p<0.001). The significant correlation of parental resilience and their children’s prosocial scores (r 0.37, p<0.01) and quality of life (r 0.50, p<0.01) was found.
Conclusions Pediatric patients’ resilience after discharge was associated with their parental resilience. Health care professionals who take care of these patients especially patients admitted to PICU should collaborate to improve their caregiver’s resilience.
Keywords Resilience, Pediatrics, Intensive care unit, Caregiver, Child, Adolescent
