Associate Professor Cara Gallegos and a team of nursing researchers recently published two articles about their findings on the quality of life, stress and depression in parents of chronically-ill children.
Their results spotlight the need to assess parental mental health. Of the parents surveyed, 62% reported some level of depression; 25% reported they were either extremely or severely depressed.
“One of the things I would like to see us doing is evaluating parents for depression when they seek care for their child,” Gallegos said.
The team also applied photo-journaling in a qualitative portion of their study. They found this unique research methodology highly effective for understanding parents’ experiences.
The research team includes Gallegos, School of Nursing Associate Professor Kelley Connor, Undergraduate Research Assistant Lauren Zuba, and Michael Aldridge, an associate professor at the University of Northern Colorado’s School of Nursing.
They produced several articles about their findings, two of which represented Boise State at the Western Institute of Nursing conference this past April.