Stress, Psychosocial Mediators, and Cognitive Mediators in Parents of Child Cancer Patients and Cancer Survivors: Attention and Working Memory Pathway Perspectives

Abstract

Objective: This review examines stress and its consequences on attention and working memory, stress symptoms in parents of child cancer patients and survivors and long-term consequences of stress on cognitive processing in parents of child cancer survivors.

Method: Eligible studies were experimental, meta-analyses, and qualitative (2000-2013) from Pubmed, Medline, the Cochrane Library, PsycArticles, and Google Scholar.

Results: We identified 92 eligible papers. They showed that elevated stress can impede performances on tasks requiring attention and memory patterns. In pediatric oncology, parental stress increased shortly after diagnosis involving depression and anxiety. Consequences of stress on cognitive performances were observed mainly among depressed individuals. As regards parents of child cancer survivors, female gender, low Socioeconomic Status (SES), and innate traits of anxiety/anger predicted the development of PTSS.

Conclusion: Evidence of stress on attention and working memory processes in parents of child cancer survivors is insufficiently developed.

Keywords: PTSS-PTSD; cancer survivor; children; parents; stress; working memory.