Letter to the editor regarding “Antecedents of mental health in parents of individuals born with ARM: The association between illness representations, negative and positive coping, and depressive symptoms”

The article by Magnavacca et al. [1], “Antecedents of Mental Health in Parents of Individuals Born with ARM: The Association Between Illness Representations, Negative and Positive Coping, and Depressive Symptoms,” deserves high appreciation for its significant contribution to understanding the psychological mechanisms influencing the mental health of parents of children with congenital conditions, particularly anorectal malformations (ARM). By applying the Common-Sense Model of Illness Self-Regulation (CSM), this study offers a comprehensive examination of how illness representations—especially perceptions of threat and control—interact with coping strategies in predicting depressive symptoms among parents.