Coping strategies for chronically ill children and adolescents facing the COVID-19 pandemic

Custódio, Lívia Lopes; Costa, Débora Cristina Couto Oliveira; Menezes, Cláudia Patrícia da Silva Ribeiro; Figueiredo, Sarah Vieira; Maia, Julyana Almeida; Jorge, Maria Salete Bessa; Chaves, Edna Maria Campelo; Gomes, Ilvana Lima Verde

doi:10.1590/0034-7167-2023-0045

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE • Rev. Bras. Enferm. 76 (Suppl 2) • 2023 • https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2023-0045 linkcopy

This document is related to:

10.1590/0034-7167.20247701e04

Coping strategies for chronically ill children and adolescents facing the COVID-19 pandemic

Estrategias de afrontamiento para niños y adolescentes con enfermedades crónicas ante la pandemia COVID-19

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Objective: to understand the experiences and coping strategies of children and adolescents with chronic illnesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: a descriptive study, with a qualitative approach, carried out with six children and adolescents at the reception of an outpatient clinic of a pediatric hospital in the state of Ceará. Data collection took place from April to September 2021, using story-drawing, analyzed in light of Coutinho’s criteria.

Results: two thematic categories emerged: Situations experienced by children and adolescents in times of COVID-19; Coping strategies for children and adolescents in their chronic illness process during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Final considerations: understanding the experiences and coping strategies of children and adolescents with chronic illness demonstrated the expression of creative imagination, incorporated by subjective components, which brings to light an approximation with the reality perceived and interpreted in a context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Descriptors:
Chronic Illness; Children; Adolescent; Psychological Adaptation; COVID-19

Drawing description

Participant’s speech

Drawing

Participant (C1)* drew himself inside the house, where the door would be. He placed an X, and, next to the house, a bicycle.

This is me, I’m super sad, oh, because I’m at home, unable to go out, unable to do what I love most in my life, which is playing. I live stuck at home. I can’t play or ride a bike [...] stay at home. This is very annoying. No, I couldn’t even walk. I was dying to go after my friends, but my mother wouldn’t let me. Before, I rode my bike every day, played with my friends, now I can’t. I hope this (disease) goes away soon. Worst thing in my life.

Participant (C2)* made a more colorful drawing, looking like two representations. He marked an X on the windows, as something forbidden.

The participant initially pointed to the largest house, at the top of the sheet, and made the first report.

Then, with a slightly saddened look and voice, he pointed to the bottom of the sheet, showing the drawing around the smaller (blue) house.

That’s where I live. My house. But now I’m “inside” the house and I can’t play. Do you see it’s closed? Well, my mother closes it so no one can go out [...] I spend a lot of time alone at home. Playing is good or nothing. I only live there (house). Here, before it was me, it was like this, I only played with my friends. Now you can’t. I liked it a lot [...].

[...] I made these lines in black in this part, because I can’t play with them (other children) anymore, so I have to stay at home.

Participant (A1)* drew himself inside his house, holding a piece of paper in one hand and a pencil in the other hand. Doors and windows are closed, and, next to the house, a tree appears, and on the other side there is a lamppost.

Inside this house, it’s me, I’m inside it, because I couldn’t leave. Not just me, but everyone [...] I even had to study at home. I couldn’t even play. I wrote in this sentence below: “During the pandemic, I stayed at home more than I went out”.

Drawing description	Participant’s speech	Drawing
Participant (C3)* sought a way to portray his feelings in his spirituality. He drew an angel above his head.	Here it is me and the angel of Jesus, above me. It is killing the coronavirus. He’s giving me protection, so I don’t catch the virus. I ask Jesus to protect me. I always do this and it works.
Participant (C4)* drew his family holding hands inside a heart (protected). The virus was represented outside the heart.	I drew my whole family. There’s my aunt, godfather and cousins here, but there’s also my father, my mother and my brothers. We are covered in the heart that protects. The family is all wearing masks to protect themselves. Heart to protect, it is made of stone, it is hard. Nobody can open it. It’s tough as a rapadura [...] COVID, in green, is out of the heart [...] this is the sun (yellow), it is sad because it wanted to walk and destroy the coronavirus, but it couldn’t.
Participant (A2)* chose to portray two moments: the drawing above depicts a moment of domestic activity in the kitchen of his home and below the drawing next to the tree in the backyard.	During the pandemic, I stayed at home more, so I wanted to read and learn how to cook. There was nothing to do [...] I learned how to make couscous in a frying pan, omelet, oatmeal cookies and other foods. I too got sick and couldn’t eat anything. I searched on the internet and did it. For me, it was cool. Another good thing was that I learned to read, because I didn’t like it, but it wasn’t a school book, no, it was a book with other readings. I knew I didn’t like it before. Even my mother got excited (laughs); she bought two books for me and I read them. That’s what I did most during the pandemic.

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[TFN1] C - child; A - adolescent.