Resilience Predicts Anxiety, Depression, and Post-traumatic Stress in Parents of Critically ill Children After Discharge.

Abstract

Research on parental psychological outcomes related to a child’s critical illness has focused on the assessment of distress and psychopathology, but resilience has been overlooked. So, this research studies: 1) the evolution of resilience after child’s discharge from a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and 2) whether resilience predicts anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress. We used a prospective longitudinal cohort design. A total of 130 parents were assessed within 48 h after the discharge of their child from PICU, and 3 and 6 months later. We measured resilience (CDRISC10), stress (PSS), stress related to PICU (PSS: PICU), emotions (DES), posttraumatic stress (DTS), anxiety and depression (HADS). Repeated Measures ANOVA, and confirmatory factor analyses were carried out. Resilience remains stable in the lower resilience group, but decreases between the discharge and the 3 months assessment in the higher resilience group. Parents with lower initial resilience show poorer outcomes than high resilience parents. The level of positive emotions, negative emotions and stress experienced during admission mediates the relationship between resilience and poor outcome (X2/df =1.72; GFI= 0,84; CFI= 0,90; RMSEA=0,075). Mental health in parents after a child’s PICU admission can be predicted by resilience, so this measure can be used to detect high risk parents for intervention.