Tobi Omodehinde

She/her

Education: Bachelor of Science in psychology (December 2014)

McNair Project: Coping and Resilience in Families with Chronic Childhood Illness (2014)

Mentor: Karen Myers-Bowman, Ph.D.

How do families of chronically ill children cope? To investigate this question, six families who currently have a chronically ill child participated in 30-60 minutes interviews consisting of open-ended questions about their challenges and coping strategies employed to tackle them. Transcripts of interviews were then analyzed for main themes. Some of the coping strategies utilized by families of chronically ill children included learning more and becoming more informed about the child’s condition, employing the help of family members and the support of friends. Some families relied heavily on faith as a means of coping. In general, families of chronically ill faced a number of challenges including strenuous family relationships. Another challenge faced was having to deal with multiple medical conditions. These families provided recommendations for other families going through similar situations.