Purpose: To examine associations between parents and adolescent and young adult (AYA) childhood cancer survivors' (CCS) mental health, and differences by Hispanic ethnicity.
Sample: Participants were 129 CCS (Mage = 19.5 yrs.; 49.9% female) and their parents (Mage = 49.0 yrs.; 87.6% female); 52.7% identified as Hispanic.
Methods: CCS completed assessments of Depressive Symptoms (CES-D), Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) and Pediatric Quality of Life (PedsQL), while parents completed CES-D, Perceived Stress (PSS) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) measures.
Results: After controlling for covariates, all three negative parental mental health measures (Parent CES-D, PSS, and PTSD), were positively associated with CCS CES-D indicating that higher depressive symptoms and stress in parents was associated with higher depressive symptoms in CCS. Parent CES-D was negatively associated with CCS PedsQL and parent PSS was negatively associated with CCS PTG. Moderation analysis revealed parent PSS to be negatively associated with PedsQL and positively related to CES-D among Hispanic families only.
Conclusion: Higher parental negative mental health measures may adversely affect CCS levels of depression, while lower values for parental negative health measures were associated with positive CCS mental health outcomes in AYA. Hispanic parents experience more associations with stress than non-Hispanics.
Implications for psychosocial providers: Long-term survivorship follow-up care guidelines should address the mental health needs of both parents and CCS, paying particular attention to perceived stress in Hispanic families.
Keywords: Adolescent; Hispanic; childhood cancer; mental health; parent-child dyad; young adult.