Affective experiences of the parents of children with cancer: A qualitative study
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Affective experiences of the parents of children with cancer: A qualitative study Dilek Demirtepe-Saygılı 1
&
Özlem Bozo 2
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract The present study aims to examine the affective experiences of the parents of children with cancer qualitatively. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents, whose children were being treated for different types of childhood cancers. Three affect themes, which were (a) negative affect (sadness, anxiety guilt, and anger), (b) emotion suppression, and (c) positive affect were revealed as a result of the transcribed and qualitatively analyzed interviews. Theoretical explanations were provided for each theme. Negative affect was the most predominant theme, yet positive affect was also present among parents, and emotion suppression was an important part of the affective experiences. The findings offered a descriptive picture about the emotions of parents with respect to caregiving a child with cancer. It was suggested that normalization and ventilation of the emotions can help the parents cope better with childhood cancers. Keywords Childhood cancer . Parent . Affect . Emotion suppression . Qualitative method
Chronic illnesses do not only affect the person with condition, but also the family system as a whole. The course of illness and the adaptation process include all family members (Brannon & Feist, 2010). After the diagnosis, there are many changes to the family system; such as the ones in the dynamics and roles, and daily life practices. Family members have their own concerns, conceptualizations, reactions, and emotions about the illness, which are all subject to change through different phases of the treatment (Wijnberg-Williams et al., 2006). When the ill family member is the offspring, a son or a daughter, parents are affected intensely by this situation at both the individual (Kazak et al., 2004) and couple levels (Silva-Rodrigues et al., 2016). In childhood cancers, which require a long and difficult treatment process, parents usually become active members This study is a part of the first author’s doctoral dissertation accepted by Middle East Technical University, Graduate School of Social Sciences. * Dilek Demirtepe-Saygılı [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Atılım University, Kızılcaşar Mah., İncek, Gölbaşı, 06836 Ankara, Turkey
2
Department of Psychology, Middle East Technical University, Universiteler Mah. Dumlupinar Blv. No:1, Ankara, Turkey
of the treatment team. In these terms, their personal experiences become very important both for the child’s and the rest of the family members’ adaptation to the illness. Being the caregiver of an ill family member is considered as a major risk factor for worse well-being. Compared to healthy control condition members, parents of children with cancer showed significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms, lower levels of life satisfaction, and worse health perception (e.g., Ljungman et al., 2014). Furthermore, pa
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