Hardiness and psychological adjustment of children, adolescents and their parents undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)

Context and relevance. HSCT is currently curative therapy for several life-threatening diseases in children and adolescents. Due to the high stress-inducing nature of this treatment, the increase in the number of patients receiving it, psychological adjustment of patients to HSCT as well as support during the treatment and subsequent rehabilitation are increasingly acute. Objecive. The aim was to investigate the role of resilience of patients and their parents in psychological adaptation to stress during HSCT. Methods and materials. The study was conducted on patients (8-18 years aged) with onco-hematological, hematological and immune diseases, as well as their caring parents (N=47). The set of questionnaires was presented to the subjects 3 times during HSCT (at the conditioning stage, on +3 and +12 weeks after HSCT). Results. The results revealed a key role of hardiness in the composition of the individual resources of patients and their parents for less distress during HSCT, higher quality of life, subjective well-being and productive copings. Conclusions. The level of hardiness determines the difference in the success of psychological adaptation to HSCT both for children and their parents.

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