Original Article

Determining the Reasons of Anxiety and Anxiety States of the Parents with Children Undergoing a Surgical Intervention

10.4274/jpr.63644

  • Esra Karaca Çiftçi
  • Diler Aydın
  • Hülya Karataş

Received Date: 29.12.2015 Accepted Date: 11.02.2016 J Pediatr Res 2016;3(1):23-29

Aim:

The purpose of this study was to determine the anxiety reasons and anxiety states of parents with children who would undergo a surgical intervention.

Materials and Methods:

This research is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study was conducted with 113 parents that had children who would have an operation in the Otorhinolaryngology and Pediatric Surgery Clinic of a university hospital located in the southeast region of Turkey between February 2012 and May 2012, and accepted to participate in the study. Data were collected with “family and child identifying information form” and “Spielberger Trait-State Anxiety Inventory”.

Results:

Regarding parents who accompanied their children for the operation at the hospital, 73.5% were mothers and 48.7% were aged between 30 and 39 years. The educational status of parents was investigated and 44.2% were primary school graduates and had maximum 4 children; and more at the rate of 32.7%. Regarding the anxiety reasons of parents who participated in the study, it was found out that 57.5% were anxious about narcosis, 57.5% failure in healing and 23.9% were anxious about the postoperative pain. Parents stated that the child’s surgery caused a decrease in time allocated for other children (56.1%), a decline in social relations (25.5%), an increase in economic burden (28.5%) and an increase in parenting roles (28.5%). Regarding the parents who were included in the study; while the trait anxiety mean score of parents was 46.37±6.17, the state anxiety mean score of parents was determined as 44.07±5.05 and statistical significance was found to be (p<0.05). There was no statistical significance between the parent’ concern with anxiety scores (p>0.05).

Conclusions:

It was determined that parents experienced anxiety due to narcosis, failure in healing, and pain; and the family life of a great majority of them was adversely affected due to several reasons. Parents with children who would undergo a surgery experienced a moderate-level anxiety.

Keywords: Anxiety, nursing, preoperative period, parents, child

Full Text (Turkish)