Psychological correlates of affect in parents of children with cleft lip and/or palate

OBJECTIVE: Parents of children with developmental malformations of different kinds are vulnerable to many consequences of the experienced stress and attempts to cope with it. The aim of the study was to determine the psychological correlates of affect for parents of such children. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included 78 respondents: 69 women and 9 men, aged between 20 and 45, all of them parents of children with craniofacial malformations who had their routine check-ups at an orthodontics clinic. The respondents were evaluated using pencil-and-paper questionnaires, the same survey set for all respondents. The following tools were used in the study: the Inventory for Measuring Coping with Stress (Mini-COPE), the Family Resilience Assessment Scale (FRAS), and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The guardians' demographic data and the details of the child's medical history were gathered using a questionnaire constructed for the purposes of the study. RESULTS: The present study confirmed significant correlations between affect and preferred stress coping strategies, as well as between affect and family resilience. Coping strategies and family resilience, treated as a resource, were also significantly correlated in the group of respondents. CONCLUSIONS: Mental resilience is an important resource contributing to effective stress coping in a situation where a child suffers from malformation.