Abstract:
Background: Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs) are the most common type of birth defects and represent a significant cause of morbidity worldwide. Beyond the medical challenges, caring for a child with a CHD may impose a substantial burden on parents, particularly mothers, and adversely affect their quality of life. Maternal quality of life is a key component of family-centred paediatric cardiac care and may influence treatment adherence, follow-up, and long-term child outcomes. Despite the growing body of research on chronic childhood illness, the relationships between illness perception, overprotective parenting behaviour, mindful self-care, and maternal quality of life in the context of CHDs have not been sufficiently examined.
Purpose: To examine the associations between mindful self-care, perceived illness severity, and overprotective parenting behaviour, and the quality of life of mothers of children with CHDs, and to explore modifiable psychosocial factors relevant to paediatric cardiac care.
Methods: This cross-sectional study included a convenience sample of 114 mothers of children with CHDs, recruited through Facebook support groups for parents of children with CHDs (e.g. groups focused on congenital heart defect awareness and parental support). Measures included the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, the Parental Protective Behaviour Scale, the Brief Mindful Self-Care Scale, the PedsQL™ Family Impact Module for assessing quality of life, and demographic variables. Data were analysed using multiple linear regression and moderation analyses to examine the predictive value of the independent variables on quality of life. Covariates included maternal age, child age, and daily illness management time.
Results: Perceived illness severity and overprotective parenting behaviour emerged as negative predictors of maternal quality of life. Mindful self-care moderated the relationship between perceived illness severity and quality of life, such that higher levels of mindful self-care buffered the negative impact of perceived illness severity. In addition, older maternal age and older child age were positively associated with quality of life, whereas longer daily illness management time was associated with poorer quality of life.
Conclusion: Perceived illness severity and overprotective parenting behaviour were associated with poorer maternal quality of life, whereas mindful self-care emerged as a key protective factor. By buffering the impact of illness perceptions, mindful self-care may help mitigate the psychosocial burden of caregiving. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating caregiver-focused psychosocial support and self-care promotion into routine paediatric cardiology services to strengthen family-centred care.
