Dissertation
“HOW WILL WE TELL THEM?” REVEALING A PARENT’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS TO CHILDREN
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000001869
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/120096
Abstract
Cancer survivors undergo debilitating treatments that challenge health-related quality of life, especially during active disease or relapse. A critical issue for a parent living with cancer is deciding how to communicate with the young children living at home about the parent’s diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Parents want to protect their children from the effects of their illness, which in turn may constrain both the communication process and the disclosure of the content. Methods: Corbin and Strauss’s (1990, 2008, 2015) grounded theory with a critical theorist approach guided the development of a substantive theoretical model. The critical theorist approach assisted with the interview process and informed the analysis of the data. The substantive theory provided a definition of categories discovered and subcategories, and narrative exemplars. The data set was reduced to five predominant categories (Discovery, Emotionally adapting, Telling the children, Children’s emotional reaction, and Role changes), and one core category (Disclosing a parent’s cancer diagnosis) that captured all the narrative data.
Implications: This study addressed gaps in the literature by describing the challenges, barriers, and facilitators in the process of disclosing a parent’s experience of living with cancer to their children. The generated substantive theoretical model provided descriptive evidence of the ways in which parents communicate a diagnosis of cancer to young children ages 7–18 living in the home. This foundational knowledge will ultimately result in the development and testing of communication modules that will guide how nurses can coach parents in effective tactics for disclosing cancer to young children. This research may lead to the expansion and clarification of best practices regarding disclosing a parent’s cancer diagnosis to the parent’s children.
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Details
- Title
- “HOW WILL WE TELL THEM?” REVEALING A PARENT’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS TO CHILDREN
- Creators
- Michelle Closner
- Contributors
- Mel R. Haberman (Advisor)Linda L Eddy (Committee Member)Gail A Oneal (Committee Member)Michele Shaw (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Nursing, College of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 207
- Identifiers
- 99900606554701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation