Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background & Aim: The challenges experienced by mothers of children who are chronically ill usually are multiple and ongoing. To provide quality care to children with chronic illnesses, family members and especially mothers, should cope effectively with the disease of their child. The aim of this study was to determine the coping behaviors of mothers of chronically ill children hospitalized in Markaz-Tebby-Kodakan in Tehran.

  Materials & Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The sample was recruited by convenience sampling and included 161 mothers of children with a chronic illness hospitalized in Markaz-Tebby-Kodakan during 2008. They were asked to complete the Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP) to evaluate their total mean and the mean of three subscales including 1) maintaining family integration, cooperation and optimistic definition of the situation 2) maintaining social support, self-esteem and psychological stability and 3) understanding the medical situation through communication with other parents and consultation with medical staff. Data was analyzed by t- test and ANNOVA using SPSS-PC (v.15).

  Results: The sample's mean for the total scale was 70.66 (SD=24.79, Range= 9- 135), for the family integration subscale 29.18 (SD=11.08, Range= 6-57), for the support, esteem and stability subscale 29.12 (SD= 9.7, Range=7-54) and for the medical communication subscale 12.71 (SD= 5, Range=2-24). There were no significant relationships between the mothers’ demographics and child disease- related variables and the total mean and three subscales’ means of the questionnaire.