Dataset Information

Measuring coping in parents of children with disabilities: a rasch model approach.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Parents of a child with disability must cope with greater demands than those living with a healthy child. Coping refers to a person's cognitive or behavioral efforts to manage the demands of a stressful situation. The Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP) is a well-recognized measure of coping among parents of chronically ill children and assesses different coping patterns using its three subscales. The purpose of this study was to provide further insights into the psychometric properties of the CHIP subscales in a sample of parents of children with disabilities.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, 220 parents (mean age, 33.4 years; 85% mothers) caring for a child with disability enrolled in special schools as well as in mainstream schools completed the 45-item CHIP. Rasch analysis was applied to the CHIP data and the psychometric performance of each of the three subscales was tested. Subscale revision was performed in the context of Rasch analysis statistics.

Results

Response categories were not used as intended, necessitating combining categories, thereby reducing the number from 4 to 3. The subscale - 'maintaining social support' satisfied all the Rasch model expectations. Four item misfit the Rasch model in the subscale -maintaining family integration', but their deletion resulted in a 15-item scale with items that fit the Rasch model well. The remaining subscale - 'understanding the healthcare situation' lacked adequate measurement precision (<2.0 logits).

Conclusions

The current Rasch analyses add to the evidence of measurement properties of the CHIP and show that the two of its subscales (one original and the other revised) have good psychometric properties and work well to measure coping patterns in parents of children with disabilities. However the third subscale is limited by its inadequate measurement precision and requires more items.

SUBMITTER: Gothwal VK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4346261 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Measuring coping in parents of children with disabilities: a rasch model approach.

Gothwal Vijaya K VK Bharani Seelam S Reddy Shailaja P SP

PloS one 20150302 3

<h4>Background</h4>Parents of a child with disability must cope with greater demands than those living with a healthy child. Coping refers to a person's cognitive or behavioral efforts to manage the demands of a stressful situation. The Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP) is a well-recognized measure of coping among parents of chronically ill children and assesses different coping patterns using its three subscales. The purpose of this study was to provide further insights into the psycho ...[more]

PMID: 25730331

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundReceiving a diagnosis that leads to severe disability in childhood can cause a traumatic experience with long-lasting emotional stress for patients and family members. In recent decades, emerging digital technologies have transformed how patients or caregivers of persons with disabilities manage their health conditions. As a result, information (eg, on treatment and resources) has become widely available to patients and their families. Parents and other caregivers can use digital platforms such as websites or social media to derive social support, usually from other patients and caregivers who share their lived experiences, challenges, and successes on these platforms. However, gaps remain in our understanding of platforms that are most frequently used or preferred among parents and caregivers of children with disabilities. In particular, it is not clear what factors primarily drive or discourage engagement with these digital tools and what the main ethical considerations are in relation to these tools.ObjectiveWe aimed to (1) identify prominent digital platforms used by parents or caregivers of children with disabilities; (2) explore the theoretical contexts and reasons for digital platform use, as well as the experiences made with using these platforms reported in the included studies; and (3) identify any privacy and ethical concerns emerging in the available literature in relation to the use of these platforms.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review of 5 academic databases of English-language articles published within the last 10 years for diseases with childhood onset disability and self-help or parent/caregiver-led digital platforms.ResultsWe identified 17 papers in which digital platforms used by parents of affected children predominantly included social media elements but also search engines, health-related apps, and medical websites. Information retrieval and social support were the main reasons for their utilization. Nearly all studies were exploratory and applied either quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. The main ethical concerns for digital platform users included hampered access due to language barriers, privacy issues, and perceived suboptimal advice (eg, due to missing empathy of medical professionals). Older and non-college-educated individuals and ethnic minorities appeared less likely to access information online.ConclusionsThis review showed that limited scientifically sound knowledge exists on digital platform use and needs in the context of disabling conditions in children, as the evidence consists mostly of exploratory studies. We could highlight that affected families seek information and support from digital platforms, as health care systems seem to be insufficient for satisfying knowledge and support needs through traditional channels.

Dataset Information

Measuring coping in parents of children with disabilities: a rasch model approach.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Measuring coping in parents of children with disabilities: a rasch model approach.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets