Impressions That Last: Particularly Negative and Positive Experiences Reported by Parents Five Years after the End of a Child’s Successful Cancer Treatment or Death

نویسندگان

  • Lisa Ljungman
  • Marike Boger
  • Malin Ander
  • Brjánn Ljótsson
  • Martin Cernvall
  • Louise von Essen
  • Emma Hovén
چکیده

OBJECTIVE To describe the experience of parenting a child diagnosed with cancer by examining particularly negative and positive experiences reported by parents of childhood cancer survivors and parents of children lost to cancer. METHODS 168 parents (88 mothers, 80 fathers) participated. Data were collected five years after the end of successful treatment or the child's death. The parents' experiences were identified by open-ended semi-structured questions about particularly negative and positive experiences of the child's cancer. An inductive approach was used in which the manifest verbal content of the answers was analysed using content analysis. RESULTS The analysis revealed eight categories of negative experience (child late effects; distressing events; healthcare; impaired relationships; long-term psychological consequences; own reactions; surrounding institutions; the fact that the child got cancer) and seven categories of positive experience (healthcare; improved relationships; long-term consequences for the child; personal development; support systems; treatment outcome; unexpected joy). The categories were related to past events or to the present situation. The findings indicate variations in experiences between parents of survivors and bereaved parents, and between fathers and mothers, as some experiences were only reported by parents of survivors and some experiences were only reported by mothers. CONCLUSIONS The results highlight the importance of past and present events to parents, and accordingly the long-lasting impact of paediatric cancer on parents. The results also point to the wide range of negative as well as positive experiences involved in parenting a child diagnosed with cancer, and provide a comprehensive understanding of the overall experience for parents of children with cancer. Specifically, the findings give guidance to healthcare providers by illustrating the need to provide healthcare personnel with continuous training in communication skills, offering parents opportunities to meet other parents in the same situation and increasing the access to psychosocial supportive services and psychological care.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Parents of Children with Cancer Psychological Long-Term Consequences and Development of a Psychological Treatment for Parents of Survivors

Ljungman, L. 2016. Parents of Children with Cancer: Psychological Long-Term Consequences and Development of a Psychological Treatment for Parents of Survivors. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1273. 65 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9745-3. The aims of this thesis were to increase the knowledge about the long-ter...

متن کامل

The Lived experience of primary caregivers of childhood cancer in the end of life: A qualitative study

Background Cancer is one of the leading causes of childhood death worldwide. Cancers under the age of 18 have been epidemiologically called pediatric cancers (1). Childhood cancer is one of the most common and yet deadly diseases among children. Among childhood cancers, leukemia and central nervous system tumours are the most common and have a larger population of patients and caregivers in th...

متن کامل

Explanation of Adoptive Families’ Experiences of Adopted Children Problems: a Grounded Theory Approach

Extended Abstract Introduction: Adoption of a child is a complex social construct that is often challenging and does not always result in immediate happiness. Children who are adopted, particularly those with a history of adversity prior to adoption, are at the risk of developing problems in behavioral and emotional self-regulation, attention deficits, or inhibitory control; as well as problem...

متن کامل

Explanation of Adoptive Families’ Experiences of Adopted Children Problems: a Grounded Theory Approach

Extended Abstract Introduction: Adoption of a child is a complex social construct that is often challenging and does not always result in immediate happiness. Children who are adopted, particularly those with a history of adversity prior to adoption, are at the risk of developing problems in behavioral and emotional self-regulation, attention deficits, or inhibitory control; as well as problem...

متن کامل

Stress and Coping in Parents of Children with Cancer

The general aim of this thesis was to investigate disease-related stress and ways of coping in parents whose children were in active treatment for cancer, or had completed successful cancer treatment. Specifically, the research included examinations of: disease-related stress at various points in time after the child’s diagnosis; strain and traumatic stress during and after the child’s treatmen...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره 11  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2016