Investigation of the Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies on Depressive Symptoms in Mothers of Children Given A Diagnosis of Cancer.

Background: The role of cognitive emotion regulation on depressive symptoms in mothers of children given a diagnosis of cancer is not yet well understood.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cognitive emotion regulation strategies on depressive symptoms in mothers of children with cancer.

Methods: This study was conducted with a cross-sectional correlational design. The study included 129 participants. Participants completed the sociodemographic characteristics form, Beck Depression Inventory, and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to determine the effect of cognitive emotion regulation strategies on depressive symptoms.

Results: Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that depressive symptoms were independently associated with self-blame (β = 0.279, P = .001) and catastrophizing (β = 0.244, P = .003) after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics of mothers. Emotion regulation strategies explained approximately 39.9% of the variance in depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that more frequent engagement of self-blame and catastrophizing were associated with more depressive symptoms.

Implications for practice: Nurses should screen mothers of children with cancer for depressive symptoms and identify mothers of children with cancer who use maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, such as self-blame and catastrophizing, as a risk group. Furthermore, nurses need to be involved in developing psychosocial interventions including adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies to help mothers coping with adverse emotions during a childhood cancer journey.