PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE STATUS OF MOTHERS WITH CHILDREN WITH CANCER: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the factors affecting the psychological resilience of mothers of children with cancer. Design and methods: The study is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The sample size was calculated as 118. The criteria for participating in the study were volunteering, having a child between the ages of 0-18 diagnosed with cancer, and being literate. Data were collected using a personal information form and the Psychological Resilience Scale for Parents of Children with Cancer. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U Test, and Kruskal Wallis test were used for analyses. The Cronbach alpha coefficient of the scale was determined as 0.71 in this study. Results: The mean age of the mothers in the study was 35.42±7.46 (min:20-max:60), and 75.4% were between the ages of 18-40. The total mean score of the scale was 95.42±7.90. It was found that the mothers' age, marital status, education status, income status, social security status, diagnosis period and care duration were significant for the sub-dimensions of psychological resilience. Conclusion: It is recommended to develop resilience training programs to increase resilience in parents of children with cancer, to integrate parent-child communication, problem-solving and LIBERTE JOURNAL (ISSN:0024-2020) VOLUME 14 ISSUE 1 2026 PAGE NO: 230caregiving skills training into the resilience training program, and to evaluate parents psychologically at regular intervals during diagnosis and treatment. Practice implications: Healthcare professionals should develop psychosocial interventions and resilience training programs to increase resilience and contribute to the caregiving skills of mothers of children with cancer.