Table 2.

Summary of results

Citation number	Author (Year) Country Condition(s)	Objective(s)	Design	Method
64	Barakat et al. (2006) USA Cancer	Describe post‐traumatic growth in adolescent survivors of cancer and their parents	Quantitative: randomised clinical trial	Perceptions of changes in self scale; assessment of life threat and treatment intensity questionnaire; impact of events scale; intensity of treatment ratings. 146 mothers, 107 fathers
54	Brazil & Krueger (2002) Canada Asthma	Examine adaptation patterns among children with moderate/severe persistent asthma and their parents	Quantitative: non‐experimental descriptive design	Family adjustment adoption model – Faces III, F‐COPE, CHIP, medical and social variables 49 mothers, 35 fathers
24	Chaney et al. (1997) USA Diabetes	Examine transactional patterns of child/mother/father adjustment over 1 year	Quantitative longitudinal study	Parents: psychological adjustment 27 mothers, 21 fathers assessed with Symptom checklist 90 (Revised) on two occasions one year apart (self‐completion). Children: interviews with administered questionnaire
22	Chesler & Parry (2001) USA Cancer	Analyse fathers’ experiences of childhood cancer through gender lens	Qualitative	In‐depth individual interviews (n = 52), seven group workshops with fathers (n = 115). Deductive then inductive analysis
59	Clark and Miles (1999) USA Congenital heart disease (CHD)	Explore fathers’ experiences of CHD	Qualitative: part of larger longitudinal study	Interviews with eight fathers at diagnosis of infant’s CHD and 12 months post‐diagnosis. Content analysis.
68	Dashiff (2003) USA Diabetes	Describe perceptions of division of diabetes self/dependent‐care responsibility between adolescents/parents and relationship to metabolic control	Quantitative: descriptive correlational study	31 adolescents and their parents (dyads) completed Diabetes Family Responsibility Questionnaire
61	Douglas et al. (1998) UK Post‐renal transplantation	Assess whether renal transplantation affects child’s later behaviour/eating and whether outcome is related to parental stress/coping	Mixed methods (qualitative and cross‐sectional study)	Semi‐structured interviews and self‐completion of General Health Questionnaire, Parenting Stress Index, Child Behaviour Check List Coping Health Inventory, Family Crisis Orientated Personal Evaluation Scale, four couples
25	Gavin and Wysocki (2006) USA Asthma, Cystic Fibrosis, Diabetes, Phenylketonuria, inflammatory bowel disease, spina bifida	Explore association between father involvement and other aspect of family functioning	Quantitative: cross‐sectional design	Used Dads Active Disease Support scale (DADS), a measure of the amount and helpfulness of paternal involvement in disease management to explore association between father involvement and other aspects of family functioning.
63	Goble (2004) USA Cerebral Palsy, osteogenesis imperfecta, autism	Examine fathers’ experiences	Qualitative: phenomenological approach	Unstructured, open‐ended, informal interviews with five fathers. Content analysis
4	Hatton et al. (1995) Canada Diabetes	Understand parents’ experiences of caring for infant/toddler with diabetes	Qualitative: phenomenological approach	14 in‐depth joint interviews with couples. Inductive phenomenological analysis
65	Hovey (2003) USA Cancer, Cystic Fibrosis, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA)	Compare parenting needs of 48 fathers of children with chronic conditions to the parenting needs of 51 fathers of well children.	Quantitative: descriptive comparison design	99 fathers completed Hymovich Family Perception Inventory (HFPI)
50	Hovey (2005) As above	Identify concerns/coping strategies of fathers and their perceptions of their wives’ concerns/coping strategies		As above
49	Hovey (2006) As above	Compare concerns/coping strategies of fathers with household incomes <$50 000 pa, with fathers/with incomes of $50 000		48 fathers completed HFPI
47	Katz (2002) Israel Cancer, heart and kidney disorders, asthma, JRA, diabetes	Examine differences in impact between non‐life‐threatening (NLT) and life‐threatening (LT) illness	Quantitative	Standardized measures: sociodemographic and illness‐related questionnaire; short version of Social Readjustment Scale; Self‐esteem Scale; Social Support Questionnaire; Marital Adjustment Test; Fathers’ involvement in care of child questionnaire. Eighty fathers and 80 mothers of children with LT (40) or NLT (40) illness
17	Katz & Krulik (1999)	Compare 80 fathers of ill children and 80 fathers of healthy children on the variables: stressful life events/self‐esteem/social support/marital satisfaction/involvement in care		As above
48	Katz (2002)	Investigate differential impact of chronic illness on 80 fathers and 80 mothers and psychosocial variables contributing to adaptation; predict parents’ adaptation		As above
20	Knafl & Zoeller (2000) USA Diabetes, asthma, JRA	Explore how mothers and fathers of children with chronic illness view their experience and its impact on personal life	Mixed methods	Individual, in‐depth qualitative interviews analysed using constant comparison and matrix display. Feetham Family Functioning Survey, profile of mood states 43 couples and seven women
55	McGrath & Chesler (2004) Australia Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)	Describe fathers’ coping with child’s difficult treatments	Qualitative: phenomenological approach.	Semi‐structured interviews with 13 mothers and six fathers of children completing induction therapy for ALL.
35	McNeill (2004) Canada JRA	Understand how fathers experience parenting role	Qualitative: grounded theory approach	Semi‐structured interviews with 22 fathers. Analysed using constant comparative method
62	Mu Pei‐fan (2005) China Epilepsy	Examine fathers’ stress	Quantitative: survey design	210 fathers, self‐completion of a general family information form and Chinese language versions of: Coping Health Inventory for Parents; Parental Perception of Uncertainty Scale; Beck Depression Inventory Analysed using descriptive statistics
53	Neil‐Urban & Jones (2002) USA Cancer	Describe fathers’ experiences	Qualitative	Two focus groups each involving five fathers. Analysed using thematic analysis
56	Peck & Lillibridge (2005) Australia Chronic respiratory And nervous system diseases	Gain insight into fathers’ experience	Qualitative: interpretive phenomenological approach	In‐depth interviews with four fathers
57	Pelchat, et al. (2003) Canada Down’s syndrome	Identify differences and similarities in the experiences of parents of children with Down’s syndrome	Qualitative: exploratory interpretative approach	Focus groups: one with five mothers and female researchers, one with four fathers and male researcher. Content analysis
1	Ray (2002) USA Chronic illness and disability	Validate a model describing work involved in raising child with chronic condition	Qualitative: philosophic hermeneutics approach	30 mothers and 13 fathers interviewed/given model (parenting and childhood chronicity) to discuss. Thematic analysis
51	Rodrigues & Patterson(2007) Canada Wide range of conditions	Examine impact of the severity of chronic condition on family functioning compared with families of healthy children	Quantitative	262 families of children with chronic conditions for whom both mother and father participated. Parents completed Family Assessment Measure (FAM) and the Functional Status Questionnaire. One sample t tests used to compare mothers’ and fathers’ FAM scores with reported norms
66	Soliday et al. (2000) Canada Kidney disease	Examine levels of parenting stress, child behaviour problems and family environment	Quantitative	39 fathers and 70 mothers (parents of 41 children with kidney disease and 34 healthy children) completed family environment scale, Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and Parenting Stress Index
21	Sterken (1996) USA Cancer	Describe uncertainty and consequential coping patterns in fathers	Quantitative: descriptive correlational	31 fathers completed Parent Perception of Uncertainty Scale, Jalowiec Coping Scale and Demographic data sheet
60	Sullivan‐Bolyai et al. (2006) USA Diabetes	Describe fathers’ experiences parenting and managing care	Qualitative: fundamental descriptive design	In‐depth open‐ended interviews, 15 fathers of children age <10 years. Content analysis
58	Swallow (2008) UK Renal conditions	Explore parents’ views of their identities as they learn to manage their child’s chronic kidney disease.	Qualitative Grounded Theory	Six mothers and two fathers of six children with a recently diagnosed chronic kidney disease participated in a total of 21 semi‐structured interviews during the 18 months after referral
46	Watson (1997) UK & US Renal replacement therapy (RRT)	Examine long‐term demands and outcomes in families with children commencing RRT	Quantitative	Parents of 24 children Response: Fathers: UK 66%, USA 38%. Perceived stress and hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales, Information Needs, Impact Illness Questionnaires
52	Wiener et al. (2001) USA HIV/AIDS	Examine psychosocial stressors experienced by fathers	Quantitative	31 fathers completed Parenting Stress Index (PSI)
67	Worrall‐Davies et al. (2002) UK Diabetes	Measure expressed emotion (EE) in parents of young children with diabetes, examine relationship between this, glycaemic control (HBA1) over 24 months	Quantitative	47 children, mothers and fathers studied over 24 months. HBA! Measured at 0, 12 and 24 months. At 12 months parental EE measured using Camberwell Family Interview. Mothers completed Child Behaviour Checklist 12 months
69	Wysocki and Gavin (2004) As Gavin & Wysocki (2006)	Assess validity/reliability of Dads Active Disease Support scale	Quantitative: cross‐sectional design	190 couples completed DADS scale, family assessment device, impact on family scale, Didactic adjustment scale. Mothers completed parenting stress index/brief symptom inventory.
45	Wysocki & Gavin (2006) As Gavin & Wysocki (2006)	Assess Paternal Involvement in Disease Management, Associations with Adherence, Quality of Life and Health Status.	Quantitative: cross‐sectional design	DADS scale data and measures of treatment adherence, quality of life, health status, and health care utilization obtained from 190 couples
38	Yeh (2002) Taiwan Cancer	Compare gender differences of parental distress	Quantitative	A subset of data obtained from 164 matched sets of parents Chinese version of Parenting Stress Index