Fundamental Assumptions, Coping, and Posttraumatic Growth in Parents of Chronically Ill Children

Parents of chronically ill children have different reactions related to their child's illness. Some experience stress and struggle, while others learn and grow from their child's illness. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) has been increasingly studied in the past decade. Researchers have begun to examine the conditions that more often bring about growth following trauma. The relationship between religious coping and PTG demonstrates that increased religious coping is related to increased PTG (Pargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1999). Research has not yet been conducted on schemas and PTG. The current study sought to determine whether the schema of vulnerability to illness/harm (Young, 1990) is negatively related to PTG and whether positive religious coping mediates the effect of the vulnerability schema on PTG in parents of children with chronic illness. While none of the hypotheses were statistically significant, the findings were in the proposed direction. Limitations, including a small, heterogeneous sample and biased recruiting, may have impacted the results. Future research in this area should take into consideration the limitations of this study.