Christiane BaldusPsychosocial Adjustment in Children of Somatically Ill Parents

About this book deutschenglish

The present book deals with psychosocial adjustment problems of children and adolescents, whose parents suffer from a serious somatic disease (e.g. multiple sclerosis or cancer). Special attention is given to the role of gender in the persons affected. The role of gender with respect to family relationships and family organization is analysed according to theoretical concepts and previous empirical findings.Using own data from a large European study, it is investigated, how psychosocial adjustment problems vary as a function of ill parent and child gender. Moreover, it is shown that factors associated with these adjustment problems are different for adolescent sons and daughters. This points at gender-specific differences in underlying processes for sons and daughters, when a parent is ill. In addition, gender-specific aspects of coping are covered.