The assessment of social support provided for and stress-coping strategies adopted by parents of chronically ill children

Introduction
Disability of a child is one of the most serious stress factors – one that places the family in a crisis situation. Social support is an essen-tial part of help addressed to such families.

Aim of the study
The purpose of the study was to assess social support provided for and stress-coping strategies adopted by parents of chronically ill children.

Material and methods
The study involved 149 parents of chronically ill children. 79% of the participants were mothers, and 21% were fathers. The mean age was 38.41 years. The chronic disease experienced by 64% of the children was diabetes. The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) and Berlin Social Support Scale (BSSS) were applied.

Results
Task-oriented coping was a prevailing style of dealing with stress. The relationships between stress-coping styles and selected categories of social support were observed. Additionally, there was a connection between particular categories of social support and the use of the prevailing stress-coping style.

Conclusions
The style that most parents adopt to cope with stress caused by the chronic disease of the child is task-oriented coping, which is con-firmed by parents’ activity and discipline that predispose them to establish a good cooperation with healthcare workers. Greater social support goes hand in hand with task-oriented coping with stress, which leads us to the conclusion that social support favors dealing with the child’s disease constructively. Identification of stress-coping styles adopted by parents of chronically ill children makes it easier for a therapeutic team to undertake supportive actions to improve the process of parents’ adaptation to the situation of chronic illness.