Waiting for the child cleft lip and/or palate surgery: Differences between mothers and fathers’ experiences

Introduction Literature on parents of children affected from cleft lip and/or palate has described the risk of higher levels of stress and anxiety during the pre-surgery period. To the best of our knowledge, just one study has empirically investigated the differences in the psychosocial adjustment of both mothers and fathers, but information on the pre-surgery period were not given. Given that, the aim of the current study is to evaluate the psychological functioning of both parents waiting for the child operation. Method Data from 34 Italian parents (F = 18; M= 16; Mean age = 36.62, SD = 6.07) of children affected by cleft lip and/or palate (Mean age = 12months; SD. = 13.75 months) were collected during the pre-hospitalization visits. The following questionnaires were administered, respectively to mothers and fathers: PSI-SF, MSPSS, PACQ, DAS and FACES-IV. Results Data shows no significant differences between fathers and mothers on the total score of each variable taken into account. Differently, significant differences emerge on the “Self Blame”PACQ subscales. Conclusions Mothers and fathers seem to share the same psychological experience during their child pre-surgery period. To note, our preliminary data highlight the maternal perception as featured by a greater sense of guilty for the child’s disease. The feeling of guilt may be a risk factor for the parental ability to cope with the experiences of the child’s illness, influencing parental care giving and parent-child relationship. Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.