Psychological Distress in Parents of Children Diagnosed with and Without Thalassemia

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:  The purpose of present research was to investigate the difference in distress, inclusive of level of depression, anxiety, and stress of those parents whose children are suffering from thalassemia. and parents whose children are not suffering from thalassemia.

HYPOTHES: It was hypothesized that: parents of children with thalassemia would score higher on the variable of psychological distress; a) Depression, b) Anxiety, and c) stress as compared to the parents of children without thalassemia

PARTICIPANTS: The entire sample was consisted of 120 parents (60 with thalassemia & 60 without thalassemia, both groups consist of 30 mother and 30 father parents. The entire sample of parents of children with thalassemia was drawn from Fatimid Foundation located in the city of Karachi, Pakistan and without thalassemia from a private school located near Fatimid foundation. Data of parents of children without thalassemia was collected from parents of normal school locate near the area of the hospital.

MEASURES: Depression, Stress and Anxiety Scale (DASS, Lovibond & Lovibond, 1993), Urdu version by Husain W, Gulzar AJIotD, Anxiety,2020 consist of 42 items rated on four-point Likert scale and based on the depression and anxiety models. It measures the negative emotional symptoms of a person.

PROCEDURE: After getting signature of parents on Introduction to participant and Informed consent form the data was collected by the administration of demographic Information form and Depression, Stress and Anxiety Scale (DASS)

Parents of patients of thalassemia were approached through hospital and normal school of Karachi where patients and parents came along with their parents for the purpose of their treatment. They were called one by one by the researcher through their intake files. Data was collected by interviewing them on the measure of Depression Stress and Anxiety Scale (DASS) 42 item scale based on the depression and anxiety models. Whereas the normal children parents’ data was collected to a nearby normal school with consideration of all ethical concerns.

Staistical Analysis: In order to interpret and convert the data in statistical terminology descriptive statistics were computed as well as t’ test as Inferential statistics was applied.  Results indicate that the hypothesis was partially proved as parents of children with thalassemia, were significantly higher on the level of depression and anxiety, but there appeared insignificant difference between both the groups on the variable of stress.

Conclusion: It was concluded that depression and anxiety were significantly high in parents of thalassemia however there was no difference in the level of stress both the groups.