Stress in Parents of a Child with Hemifacial Microsomia: The Role of Child Characteristics and Parental Coping Strategies.

OBJECTIVE: Examine stress levels of parents of children with hemifacial microsomia (HFM) and the relationship of parental stress to child characteristics and cognitive coping strategies.

DESIGN: Prospective cross-sectional study.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Parents with a child (age 3-19 years) with HFM (N = 31) were recruited through the Department of Orthodontics and the Craniofacial Center, Sophia-Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Intervention and Outcome Measures: The adapted and shortened Dutch version of the parental stress index (NOSI-K) was used to measure parental stress, and the cognitive emotion-regulation questionnaire was used to measure cognitive coping strategies. Pearson correlations and a multiple regression analysis were performed.

RESULTS: The hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed associations between increased parental stress and learning difficulties and use of acceptance as a coping strategy. This suggests that problems other than the characteristic visual appearance of the child's face in HFM have a greater influence on parental stress.

CONCLUSIONS: Learning difficulties of the child with HFM and parental acceptance affect stress in parents with a child with HFM the most and are important in the search for a targeted tailoring of intervention for parents with high levels of parental stress.