Spiritual coping among parents of children with cystic fibrosis

Abstract

Research shows that cystic fibrosis is the most common genetic life threatening disorder of childhood (Hodgkinson & Lester, 2002). Since the daily treatment of this disease is extensive, it may incur a large amount of stress in the daily lives of the affected children's parents (Wong & Heriot, 2008). The aim of this small-scale descriptive exploratory study was to explore the spiritual coping strategies used by parents of children with cystic fibrosis. A cohort group of 20 parents of children with cystic fibrosis, forming a total of 10 families was recruited and 9 families agreed to participate in this study. A semi-structured interview schedule with probes derived from the Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale (Baldacchino, 2003) gathered qualitative data. Interviews were audio-tape recorded and transcribed verbatim by the researcher. The Thematic Analysis Framework (Burnard, 1991) guided the data analysis. The findings of this study generated three themes, namely the impact of cystic fibrosis on parents, religious-spiritual coping and existential spiritual coping. A set of recommendations were made to minimize the impact of cystic fibrosis on parents and enhance their spiritual coping mechanisms. Further research was recommended to generate more in-depth findings and to increase awareness on the spiritual coping methods used by parents of children with cystic fibro sis and their families.