Mothers' perceptions of benefit following pediatric stem cell transplantation: a longitudinal investigation of the roles of optimism, medical risk, and sociodemographic resources.

Background: This longitudinal study investigated the course and predictors of benefit finding among 144 mothers of children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), a severely stressful and life-threatening medical procedure.

Purpose: Children's medical risk and mothers' dispositional optimism and sociodemographic resources were examined as predictors of benefit finding. The association between benefit finding and mothers' psychosocial adaptation was also investigated.

Methods: Assessments occurred during hospitalization for HSCT (Time 1 [T1]) and 6 months later (Time 2 [T2]).

Results: Hierarchial multiple regression analyses revealed that predictors of benefit finding differed systematically across assessments, with optimism and medical risk predicting benefit finding at both time points but sociodemographic resources predicting only T2 benefit findings. Benefit finding did not predict psychosocial adaptation until optimism was considered as a moderator of their relation: T1 benefit finding was positively associated with T2 adaptation only for mothers high in optimism.

Conclusion: The need for longitudinal research on posttrauma adaptation and the utility of considering the natural history of the trauma are discussed.