The Uncertainty and its Related Factors of Parents with a Cancer Child during Their Treatment

The study aims to explore the uncertainty and its related factors of parents with a cancer child during their treatment. The study used a cross-sectional study design with purposive sampling from two medical centers of northern Taiwan children''s cancer ward. The valid samples are 103 parents of children with cancer for the analysis of the study, including 40 fathers and 63 mothers. The structure questionnaires were including: the children''s demographic variables, the parents demographic variables, Mishel Parent Perception of Uncertainty Scale (PPUS), the researcher-developed Taiwan Parent’s Uncertainty Scale (TPUS), State Anxiety Inventory (SAI), and 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). The data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0 window and descriptive statistics, descriptive analysis, t test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient analysis.
The study found the mean age of mothers was 40.5 ± 5.7 years, the mean age of fathers was 44.5 ± 4.6 years. The major findings of this study were as below：1. Cancer children of parents score of uncertainty four levels were as the followings by PPUS. Scores of subscales in order "ambiguity" is the highest, followed by the "unpredictability", "lack of clarity", and "lack of information" By TPUS, scores of subscales in order "unpredictability" is the highest, followed by the "ambiguity", "lack of clarity", and "lack of information”. 2. In this study, parent’s uncertainty was not related to the cancer children demographic variables. 3. Three demographic characteristics of parents were related to PPU, including the level of education, marital status and family income. That is, when parents with lower level of education, widows and monthly family income lower than 60 thousand Taiwan dollars would have higher level of uncertainty. 4. Parent’s uncertainty was significantly positively correlated with anxiety and significantly negatively correlated with the quality of life. 5. There is no difference between the uncertainty of the father and the mother of children with cancer (t=.029, p=.977). And 6. The TPUS was significantly correlated with PPU (r=.842, p=.000)、SAI (r=.549, p=.000) and SF-36 (r=- .510, p=.000) with a p value less than .05, Based on the current finding, the TPUS has preliminary convergent validity with above three measures.
Although there is difference between the sequence of subscales of both PPU and TPUS in current study, the TPUS might provide as a short and easy tool to quick measure the status of uncertainty of parents with a cancer child in Taiwan clinical setting. However there is a need for further research to validate the new developed too.
The findings of current study support that the parents with a cancer child would have higher uncertainty which would lead a lower level of quality of life. It is important to pay attention to parent’s mental status when take care of their cancer child. In particular, the parents with lower level of education, widows, and lower monthly family income need more attention.