Division of Childcare Leave among Parents of Children with a Serious Illness

Hjelmstedt, Sofia; Montgomery, Scott; Nybergh, Lotta; Myrberg, Ida Hed; Norberg, Annika Lindahl; Hovén, Emma

doi:10.1177/0192513x20940748

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…Participants in this study reported that one reason for this was that the father had a higher income, and they decided on how to divide responsibilities for work and childcare based on what was most economically favourable for the family. This reasoning is however not consistent with previous findings concluding only a weak association between division of care responsibilities and relative income within parental couples of children with cancer (Hjelmstedt et al, 2021). Also in the general Swedish population, where the pattern consistently has displayed mothers to use the majority of a parental couple's parental and childcare leave (Statistics Sweden, 2020), have the absolute and relative income of a parent been found to be secondary in determining a parent's extent of parental leave, whereas gender has been found the most important determinant (Swedish Social Insurance Agency, 2013).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…However, when they in time began to return to work, it was often the father who returned to work earlier or to a greater extent. These results are reflected in a previous registry-based study, which found no disparity in child care leave between mothers and fathers of children with cancer around the time of diagnosis, but a return to skewed division of care leave, with mothers being on more care leave than fathers, later in the disease trajectory (Hjelmstedt et al, 2021). Participants in this study reported that one reason for this was that the father had a higher income, and they decided on how to divide responsibilities for work and childcare based on what was most economically favourable for the family.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…Parents described how both the continued demanding care needs of the child, as well as their own reduced work ability due to impaired health, was met with annoyance from employers and colleagues, and ignorance from social authorities. On a group level, extent of care leave has not been found to impact income development (Hjelmstedt et al, 2021), but by using focus groups as source of data, we were able to show that many parents do in fact feel penalized by employers for their absence from work. Importantly, that some parents experienced being forced out of work, either directly or indirectly, is rather noteworthy in the Swedish context, where the protection of labour rights is heavily emphasized.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

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A Balancing Act: Working and Caring for a Child with Cancer

et al. 2021

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Parenting a child with cancer creates numerous additional care demands that may lead to increased difficulties in balancing work and family responsibilities. Still, there is limited knowledge of how parents cope with both parenthood and paid work after a child’s cancer diagnosis. The aim of the study was to explore mothers’ and fathers’ experiences of balancing the dual roles of work and parenthood following a child’s cancer diagnosis. Nine focus groups with in total 32 parents of children with cancer in Sweden were conducted. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. Three categories were identified: Shifts in the importance of the parent role and the work role, Influence of context and conditions on the balance of roles, and Long-term unbalance of roles. Parents expressed an increased appreciation of time spent with family, but also emphasized the importance of work to counterbalance the sometimes overwhelming parenting demands. The pre-existing financial situation, work situation, and employer behaviour were important factors influencing the parents’ ability to balance work and family. Traditional gender roles influenced how couples divided responsibilities and reflected on their experiences. Mothers and fathers were also met with different expectations, which highlights the need for the healthcare to consider their communication with caregivers. Importantly, the parents expressed how the child’s illness affected their ability to balance work and family for a long time, while the understanding and support from others had steadily declined. Enabling parents to care for their ill child without sacrificing their own career is of utmost importance, and future research should focus on identifying which factors facilitate for parents to achieve a sustainable work-life balance.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

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A Balancing Act: Working and Caring for a Child with Cancer

et al. 2021

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“…14,33,49 Difficulties in combining parenting responsibilities and work may also be more pronounced among mothers. 14 In Sweden, while both mothers and fathers take time off from work around the time of their child's diagnosis, fathers return to work earlier while mothers continue to be on leave, 50,51 which is reflected on the lower long-term employment status and income of mothers of children with cancer even in the genderegalitarian Nordic countries. 27 However, in our study, changes in household income had no impact on the effect of the child's cancer on mothers' psychotropic medication use, potentially because the Finnish welfare state compensates for the income losses experienced by parents and because household income was not very strongly associated with psychotropic medication use, particularly among women.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in parents' psychotropic medication use following child's cancer diagnosis: A fixed‐effects register‐study in Finland

et al. 2022

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Background Symptoms of depression and anxiety are elevated among parents of children with cancer. However, knowledge of parents' psychotropic medication use following child's cancer diagnosis is scarce. Methods We use longitudinal Finnish register data on 3266 mothers and 2687 fathers whose child (aged 0–19) was diagnosed with cancer during 2000–2016. We record mothers' and fathers' psychotropic medication use (at least one annual purchase of anxiolytics, hypnotics, sedatives, or antidepressants) 5 years before and after the child's diagnosis and assess within‐individual changes in medication use by time since diagnosis, cancer type, child's age, presence of siblings, and parent's living arrangements and education using linear probability models with the individual fixed‐effects estimator. The fixed‐effects models compare each parent's annual probability of psychotropic medication use after diagnosis to their annual probability of medication use during the 5‐year period before the diagnosis. Results Psychotropic medication use was more common among mothers than fathers already before the child's diagnosis, 11.2% versus 7.3%. Immediately after diagnosis, psychotropic medication use increased by 6.0 (95% CI 4.8–7.2) percentage points among mothers and by 3.2 (CI 2.1–4.2) percentage points among fathers. Among fathers, medication use returned to pre‐diagnosis level by the second year, except among those whose child was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia or lymphoblastic lymphoma. Among mothers of children with a central nervous system cancer, medication use remained persistently elevated during the 5‐year follow‐up. For mothers with other under‐aged children or whose diagnosed child was younger than 10 years, the return to pre‐diagnosis level was also slow. Conclusions Having a child with cancer clearly increases parents' psychotropic medication use. The increase is smaller and more short‐lived among fathers, but among mothers its duration depends on both cancer type and family characteristics. Our results suggest that an increased care burden poses particular strain to the long‐term mental well‐being of mothers.

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Parents' experiences on handling paediatric anticancer drugs at home after an educational intervention

Akkawi El Edelbi,

Eksborg,

Kreicbergs

et al. 2024

Evaluation Clinical Practice

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BackgroundThe shift of treatment of paediatric cancer patients to include more care at home puts a lot of pressure on health care professionals (HCPs) to prepare and train parents on safe and correct drug handling at home. Parents must take in and understand the information presented to them while coping with their own fear related to their child's cancer diagnosis. In Sweden, parents are expected to handle and manipulate oral anticancer drugs (OADs) in the home setting. There is however a lack of a standardized method to inform and educate parents on how to handle OADs in a correct way at home.AimTo describe parents' experiences of handling OADs at home after participating in an educational intervention.MethodEducational intervention in the present study aimed to improve parents' knowledge in key concepts that is, handling OADs at home by using information presented in different forms. Fifteen parents to 12 children with cancer were recruited from a paediatric oncology ward in Sweden to participate in an interview. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to qualitative content analysis.ResultsParents' experiences are presented in categories: Relieved stress, Awareness of own exposure, Facilitated my everyday life, Parents need continued support individually. The educational intervention resulted in both positive and negative feelings, increased awareness of drug exposure and correct drug handling at home. Practical training and information presented in different ways facilitated the process of drug handling. To handle the drug correctly at home parents requested to be trained and informed in the beginning of their child's oral drug treatment. In addition, parents requested to be individually approached by HCP to get answers to questions and concerns.ConclusionsThis educational intervention study shows promising results for the method used by HCPs to inform and educate parents on complicated topics such as handling OADs at home.

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Division of Childcare Leave among Parents of Children with a Serious Illness

Cited by 3 publications

References 43 publications

A Balancing Act: Working and Caring for a Child with Cancer

A Balancing Act: Working and Caring for a Child with Cancer

Changes in parents' psychotropic medication use following child's cancer diagnosis: A fixed‐effects register‐study in Finland

Parents' experiences on handling paediatric anticancer drugs at home after an educational intervention

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