American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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Review
State of the science on parental stress and family functioning in pediatric intensive care units.
Critical illness of a child is stressful for parents and may affect family functioning. Most research on hospitalization in pediatric intensive care units has focused on the immediate responses of parents to the experience. ⋯ Further research is warranted on (1) families of various ethnic backgrounds; (2) fathers and their low participation rates; (3) mother and father comparisons; (4) replication of interventional research with larger and more diverse samples; (5) exploratory and prospective, longitudinal research; and (6) research with children in pediatric intensive care units.