Relationship between self-efficacy and caring behavior of mothers of children with cancer

Introduction : The role of parents, especially mothers, in caring for a child with cancer undergoing chemotherapy during and after treatment is important. Proper caring behavior will be enhanced through self-efficacy and interventions can increase self-efficacy and subsequently caring behavior will change. This study aimed to determine the relationship between self-efficacy and caring behavior of mothers of children with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Methods : This Cross-Sectional study was of correlational type. Statistical population consisted of all mothers (86 subjects) of children with cancer undergoing chemotherapy in Bandar Abbas children hospital in 2017. Data were collected by a researcher-made self caring and general self-efficacy questionnaires which were completed by mothers and finally analyzed by SPSS software using Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test, and ANOVA tests. Results : According to the results, 57% of mothers were in good condition regarding self-efficacy and caring behavior. There was a significant relationship between maternal caring behavior with age (P-value = 0.03), maternal education (P-value = 0.02), and number of chemotherapy sessions (P-value = 0.005). There was a positive and significant correlation between self-efficacy and caring behavior of mothers (P-value <0.001). Conclusion : The results showed that mothers' caring behavior was in good condition and due to the importance of self-efficacy, it seems that interventions based on self-efficacy theory could make mothers more capable and better caregivers.