Investigation of the role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in predicting the risk of depression in mothers of children diagnosed with cancer

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in predicting the risk of depression in mothers of children diagnosed with cancer. The sample of the study consisted of the mothers of children diagnosed with childhood cancer who were treated in the outpatient unit of oncology / hematology clinic of two university hospitals and a training and research hospital in İzmir, a province in western Turkey (n=127). Data were collected using the sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, beck depression scale and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire. Numbers, percentages, arithmetic mean, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, pearson correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis methods were used in the analysis of the data. In this study, factors such as income less than expenses (β=0.300, p=0.002), and self-blame (β=0.279, p=0.001) and catastrophizing (β=0.244, p=0.003), two of the cognitive emotion regulation strategies, had a statistically significant effect on the depression score. The final model of depression explains 44.5% of the variance (Adjusted R2=0.445). In conclusion, the mothers' having income less than expenses, and self-blame and catastrophizing strategies predict the risk of depression. It is recommended that cognitive emotion regulation strategies used by mothers should be monitored in terms of depression risk, and interventions aimed at supporting the use of adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies in mothers should be conducted, and the effectiveness of these interventions should be evaluated. Keywords: childhood cancer, mother, cognitive emotion regulation, depression