Factors influencing the coping effort of mothers of hospitalized children.

The purpose of this study was to test a theoretical model predicting the relationships among four concepts: predictability of events, control, anxiety, and coping effort of mothers of children hospitalized with acute physical conditions. The sample consisted of 45 mothers of acutely ill, hospitalized children from 1-24 months of age. For each of the concepts, 16 events commonly associated with hospitalization of a child were proportionately ranked using magnitude estimation measurement technique. The psychometric properties of the instrument were estimated through reliability assessment and cross modality matching. Multiple regression analysis indicated that 97% of the dependent variable, coping effort, was explained by two of the three predictor variables--predictability of events and anxiety. Mothers who knew what events to expect experienced less anxiety and reported expending less effort to cope with the stressful events. Control was not a significant factor in predicting the mothers' coping effort.