An Exploratory Study to Assess Mothers Stress and Coping Patterns Whose Children are Suffering With Leukaemia in Selected Hospitals of Maharashtra

The study was conducted to assess the mothers stress and coping patterns whose children are suffering with leukaemia in selected hospitals of Maharashtra. The conceptual framework of the study was based on Roy's Adaptation theory (1989). For the present study exploratory approach was considered appropriate. Independent variable included in the study was leukaemia, extraneous variables included were: age, education, occupation, age of child, gender of the child, duration of illness, monthly family income, religion, type of family, number of hospitalization and birth order of child Dependent variables were stress and coping patterns. The tool used had three part: Part I was to obtain personal data, Part II structured Stress Scale which had 30 items and Part III was coping patters checklist (Modified standardized tool by Kiran Rao) and it was further modified by the investigator. A tryout of the tool was done on 6 mothers. Pilot study was done on 6 mothers at Christian Medical Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab. Final data from sample of 60 mothers was collected from two hospitals from Maharashtra. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data, bar diagrams were used to depict the findings and to interpret the data. The following conclusions were drawn based on the findings of the study i. e. majority of mothers (65%) had moderate level of stress, majority of mothers whose children are suffering leukaemia had adaptive coping patterns, there is a moderate negative correlation between stress and coping patterns of the mothers and there was no significant association of stress and coping patterns with selected variables such as age, education, occupation, age of child, gender of the child, duration of illness, monthly family income, religion, type of family, number of hospitalization and birth order of child.