Results
Socio-demographic
characteristics
A total of 392 parents of children with hematological malignancies who
completed the questionnaires were eligible for this survey. The
socio-demographic characteristics of parents and children are described
in Table 1.
Latent class analysis
Mode fit statistics/indices are shown in Table 2. The single-class model
had the largest AIC, BIC, and ABIC, compared to all other models. In
addition, the LR tests of the 2-class model were all statistically
significant (LMR P <0.0001, aLMRP <0.0001, and BLRT P <0.0001),
indicating the population is not homogeneous, but heterogeneous.
Comparing the 2-class and 3-class models, the latter had smaller
information criterion indices (AIC, BIC, and ABIC) and all significant
LR tests (LMR P =0.0021, aLMR P =0.0021, and BLRTP <0.0001). We, therefore, rejected the 2-class model in
favor of 3 or more classes. Comparing the 3-class and the 4-class
models, BIC (9705.262), LMR (P =0.7261), and aLMR
(P =0.7265) favored the 3-class model, but AIC, aBIC, and BLRT
favored the 4-class model. On the
balance of model fit, model parsimony, and clinical interpretability of
the results, the three-class model was selected. Figure 1 displays the
results of the 3-class solution. The attribution probabilities of the
model were 0.923, 0.948 and 0.958, respectively, and entropy=0.872
indicating good quality of class classification. The plot of item
response probabilities endorsing ”no difficulty” for the 23 caregiving
ability indicators in each of the classes shows explicit patterns of
caregiving ability in the parents of children. The probabilities of
endorsing ”no difficulty” in Class 1 (n=131, 33.4%) are all high across
six domains. We, therefore, labeled this class as “high caregiving
ability” class. The other two classes (Classes 2 and 3) were labeled
“medium caregiving ability” (n=170, 43.3%) and “low caregiving
ability” (n=91, 23.2%) classes, respectively, based on the item
response probabilities in the classes.