Parental Stress and Resilience in Congenital Heart Disease: A New Frontier for Health Disparities Research

Parental stress is a universal experience for parents who have children diagnosed with congenital heart disease and has been studied within the context of the child’s illness but not through a broader health disparity lens. This paper provides a thorough synthesis of the current literature on parental stress addressing disparities in parents of children with CHD. Several theories and models from within this literature are described and a new comprehensive framework, the Parental Stress and Resilience in CHD Model is presented. Future research and clinical implications are discussed.