Psychosocial Impact of Pediatric Care on Parents and Families: Vulnerability, Resilience, and Adaptation

With advances in pediatric care, more children are receiving medical treatment for a wide range of conditions, from acute illness to complex or chronic conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, or congenital heart disease. While research has highlighted the impact of these conditions on children’s development and well-being, less attention has been given to the effects on parents and family functioning. Raising a child who requires medical care, whether during hospitalization, outpatient treatment, or ongoing follow-up, can place significant psychological and practical demands on parents. These challenges can lead to heightened stress, emotional burden, and strain on family dynamics. Importantly, parental mental health plays a critical role in shaping the parent-child relationships and, in turn, the child’s emotional and developmental outcomes.

Despite their key role in supporting their child’s recovery and development, knowledge about the psychosocial impact on parents and reciprocal family processes remains fragmented. A more comprehensive understanding of how pediatric healthcare impacts parents and families is essential to support not only the child, but also the well-being of the whole family.

The overall aim of this Research Topic is to advance our understanding of the psychosocial impact of pediatric care in children on parents and family dynamics. While much research has focused on children’s individual adaptation to illness or hospitalization, less is known about how these experiences affect parental wellbeing and the wider family system.

This Research Topic seeks to actively address that gap by integrating new perspectives and evidence on parents’ and family functioning. First, we aim to clarify how a child’s medical condition affects parental mental health, parenting behavior, emotional functioning, (partner or family) relationships, and daily functioning. Second, we seek to identify both risk and resilience factors that influence how families cope with these challenges, such as lower socioeconomic status, previous live events, coping strategies, supportive family environments, and access to external resources. Third, we emphasize the interconnectedness of family dynamics, focusing on how children and parents mutually influence one another in the context of medical stress. Together, these aims will promote a more systemic and comprehensive understanding of family adaptation in pediatric psychology.

We welcome manuscripts addressing the intersection of pediatric healthcare, parental well-being, and family functioning. Submissions may include original empirical studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, theoretical papers, and clinical perspectives.

Specific themes of interest include:

- The psychological and physical health consequences for parents raising a child with a medical condition.
- Risk factors for impairments in parental functioning and family functioning.
- Protective factors and resources that foster resilience in parents and families dealing with childhood medical challenges.
- The reciprocal processes by which children and parents influence each other’s coping and adjustment.
- Interventions that target at supporting parents and families of children with medical conditions to reduce burden, enhance coping, and hereby improve overall psychosocial functioning and quality of life of both pediatric patients and their parents.

We particularly encourage contributions that emphasize translational impact, with implications for clinical practice, family support programs, and health policy in pediatric psychology.