The Social and Cultural Context of Coping with Sickle Cell Disease: II. The Role of Financial Hardship in Adjustment to Sickle Cell Disease

Abstract

Recent evidence on the negative psychological effects of poverty suggests that economic status alone might account for the adjustment problems attributed to sickle cell disease (SCD). The relationship of SCD and financial hardship to adjustment was examined in 327 ill children and their parents. SCD and hardship contributed independently to impaired child and parental functioning. For parents, illness severity had more negative effects than did financial hardship, but for