Parental coping with childhood hospitalization: a theoretical framework to guide research and clinical interventions.

Topic: Although previous studies have demonstrated the value of psychologically preparing parents for their children's hospitalizations, there is only speculation regarding the coping processes by which clinical interventions have exerted their effects.

Objective: This paper presents a long-needed theoretical framework to guide research and informational interventions with parents of hospitalized children.

Source: Prior work by this author has provided empirical support for the proposed theoretical framework.

Conclusions: Repeated testing of the proposed framework could build a scientific body of knowledge for pediatric nursing practice.