Parents' attribution of positive characteristics to their children with cancer

The main objective of this study was to determine whether positive attribution is characteristic of parents of children with a life-threatening disease. Parents (n = 321) and their children (n = 205) in different conditions (cancer in remission and with a relapse, asthma, and healthy controls) completed questionnaires to investigate parents' attribution of positive characteristics to their children, children's depressive behavior, and the correspondence between these two sources of information. It was found that parents of children with cancer attributed significantly more cheerful behavior to their children than parents of children with asthma and parents of healthy children. The findings obtained were equivalent for the mothers and the fathers. The levels of depressive symptoms reported by the children in the four groups did not differ. The parents' attribution of depressive behavior to their child was significantly different from the children's reports in all cases except from the children in the healthy group. Parents' attribution of positive characteristics to their children with cancer, the children's own report of a low level of depressive feelings, and the low parent-child agreement supports a proposed mechanism of self-protection by parents of children with cancer. If parents of children with cancer need to see their children as strong, they will be less likely to accurately report their children's emotional feelings. More research is needed to determine whether positive attribution influences the emotional adjustment of parents of children with cancer.