Emotional responses of children and adolescents to parents with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

The effect of a chronic illness of one parent on children is determined by a complicated interaction of various emotional components. Our focus was on the children's and adolescent's emotional reactions and feelings towards their multiple sclerosis (MS)-affected parents, including: degree of responsibility, obligation and concern, yielding behaviour and active protection, fear and anxiety related to the state of illness, their sense of burden in connection with household tasks and errands, and anger. Fifty-six children, ages 10-18, each having a parent with MS, were examined. The results were compared to a control group of 156 age-matched children with healthy parents. Feelings were examined by means of a questionnaire previously constructed by us. We found that children of parents with MS felt more responsibility and obligation than children of healthy parents. They also exhibited more yielding behaviour, more fear and anxiety related to states of illness, a greater sense of burden and a greater degree of anger. We consider the interaction between the sex of the parent and the sex of the child in connection with these feelings and discuss the implications of the 'parental child' role of these children.

Children and adolescents adjustment to parental multiple sclerosis: a systematic review

“…Of the 18 eligible studies (see Table 1), locations of study participants were as follows: United States (n = 4) [12,15,16,18], Canada (n = 3) [13,17,22], Switzerland (n = 2, 1 of which also included Germany and Greece) [8,23], Greece (n = 2) [7,21], UK (n = 1) [14], Israel (n = 2) [24,25], Australia (n = 4) [5,10,19,20]. Cohort sizes ranged from 8 [10] to 281 [12], with a total of 2051 children or adolescents studied overall.…”

“…In the two studies reporting the affected parents’ disease course, most had relapsing-remitting MS [5,14]. Only six studies had enforced a minimum time of exposure to parental MS before enrollment [7,16,18,21,24,25], the rest did not specify or only mentioned parents’ disease duration.…”

The psychosocial effect of multiple sclerosis: The impact of relapses

“…The effect on children of chronic illness in a parent is mitigated by a number of factors, including the nature of their relationship with the parent, communication between the ill and healthy parents, and previous experience with the parent's illness [12]. Children who have a parent with MS display more anger and fear and feel more responsibility and obligation than children whose parents do not have MS [12].…”

“…Children who have a parent with MS display more anger and fear and feel more responsibility and obligation than children whose parents do not have MS [12]. They are concerned about whether their parent can manage household tasks, for example.…”

“…Since many individuals in this age range are busy caring for young children, the onset of the disease and relapses can have a profound effect on the family of the individual with MS. The disease may cause a change in lifestyle for the family, which can give rise to a mixture of feelings as a result [12].…”