TY - JOUR
T1 - Uncertainty and Posttraumatic Stress
T2 - Differences Between Mothers and Fathers of Infants with Disorders of Sex Development
AU - Delozier, Alexandria M.
AU - Gamwell, Kaitlyn L.
AU - Sharkey, Christina
AU - Bakula, Dana M.
AU - Perez, Megan N.
AU - Wolfe-Christensen, Cortney
AU - Austin, Paul
AU - Baskin, Laurence
AU - Bernabé, Kerlly J.
AU - Chan, Yee Ming
AU - Cheng, Earl Y
AU - Diamond, David A.
AU - Ellens, Rebecca E.H.
AU - Fried, Allyson
AU - Galan, Denise
AU - Greenfield, Saul
AU - Kolon, Thomas
AU - Kropp, Bradley
AU - Lakshmanan, Yegappan
AU - Meyer, Sabrina
AU - Meyer, Theresa
AU - Nokoff, Natalie J.
AU - Reyes, Kristy J.
AU - Palmer, Blake
AU - Poppas, Dix P.
AU - Paradis, Alethea
AU - Tishelman, Amy C.
AU - Yerkes, Elizabeth B
AU - Chaney, John M.
AU - Wisniewski, Amy B.
AU - Mullins, Larry L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding This study was funded by National Institutes of Health Grant NICHD R01HD074579.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2019/7/15
Y1 - 2019/7/15
N2 - Parents of children with disorders of sex development (DSD) report significant psychological distress, including posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), with mothers consistently reporting higher rates of psychological distress than fathers. However, psychological factors contributing to PTSS in both parents are not well understood. The present study sought to fill this gap in knowledge by examining PTSS and illness uncertainty, a known predictor of psychological distress, in parents of children recently diagnosed with DSD. Participants were 52 mothers (Mage = 32.55 years, SD = 5.08) and 41 fathers (Mage = 35.53 years, SD = 6.78) of 53 infants (Mage = 9.09 months, SD = 6.19) with DSD and associated atypical genital development. Participants were recruited as part of a larger, multisite study assessing parents’ psychosocial response to their child’s diagnosis of DSD. Parents completed measures of illness uncertainty and PTSS. Mothers reported significantly greater levels of PTSS, but not illness uncertainty, than fathers, and were more likely than fathers to report clinical levels of PTSS (21.2% compared to 7.3%). Hierarchical regression revealed that parent sex, undiagnosed or unclassified DSD status, and illness uncertainty were each associated with PTSS. The overall model accounted for 23.5% of the variance associated with PTSS. Interventions targeting illness uncertainty may be beneficial for parents of children with newly diagnosed DSD.
AB - Parents of children with disorders of sex development (DSD) report significant psychological distress, including posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), with mothers consistently reporting higher rates of psychological distress than fathers. However, psychological factors contributing to PTSS in both parents are not well understood. The present study sought to fill this gap in knowledge by examining PTSS and illness uncertainty, a known predictor of psychological distress, in parents of children recently diagnosed with DSD. Participants were 52 mothers (Mage = 32.55 years, SD = 5.08) and 41 fathers (Mage = 35.53 years, SD = 6.78) of 53 infants (Mage = 9.09 months, SD = 6.19) with DSD and associated atypical genital development. Participants were recruited as part of a larger, multisite study assessing parents’ psychosocial response to their child’s diagnosis of DSD. Parents completed measures of illness uncertainty and PTSS. Mothers reported significantly greater levels of PTSS, but not illness uncertainty, than fathers, and were more likely than fathers to report clinical levels of PTSS (21.2% compared to 7.3%). Hierarchical regression revealed that parent sex, undiagnosed or unclassified DSD status, and illness uncertainty were each associated with PTSS. The overall model accounted for 23.5% of the variance associated with PTSS. Interventions targeting illness uncertainty may be beneficial for parents of children with newly diagnosed DSD.
KW - DSD
KW - Disorders of sex development
KW - Illness uncertainty
KW - Intersex
KW - Posttraumatic stress
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066801338&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85066801338&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10508-018-1357-6
DO - 10.1007/s10508-018-1357-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 31144217
AN - SCOPUS:85066801338
SN - 0004-0002
VL - 48
SP - 1617
EP - 1624
JO - Archives of Sexual Behavior
JF - Archives of Sexual Behavior
IS - 5
ER -