Parenting with chronic cancer: a relational perspective.

Living with chronic cancer poses unique challenges for parents caring for minor children. The demands of the illness such as pain, fatigue, and loss of mobility, as well as caregiver responsibilities, can conflict with the patient's and partner's idea of what it means to parent. This article examines the ways in which chronic cancer impacts the parental role using Attachment as a theoretical framework. Case examples and implications for clinical practice in both health care and mental health settings are provided.

Children's attachment-related self-worth: a multi-method investigation of postdivorce preschoolers' relationships with their mothers and peers.

Three related hypotheses derived from attachment theory were examined in this multi-informant and multi-method study of 71 postdivorce mothers and their preschool children (40 boys, 31 girls): (1) mother-child interactions observed at home will be related to attachment-related representations by children (Attachment Story Completion Task or ASCT) and mothers (Parent Attachment Interview or PAI); and (2) these variables will be inversely correlated with maternal depressive symptoms and positively with social support (from mother's parents and the child's father); and (3) mother-child observations and representations will predict teacher-rated peer behavior. Where appropriate, child gender, maternal income, and child receptive language were statistically controlled. More harmonious observed mother-child interactions were associated with children's sense of self-worth in family relationships (ASCT) and maternal accounts of sensitive-effective guidance (PAI). Observational and representational variables were inversely correlated with maternal depressive symptoms. Mothers' satisfaction with social support from their parents was indirectly linked to the family variables while social support from the child's father had no measurable effect on the mother-child variables. Mother-child variables and teacher ratings were uncorrelated but explained independent variance in ASCT self-worth scores.