http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1043454214529022

Cultural influences in pediatric cancer from diagnosis to cure/end of life.

Threatening nature of childhood cancer and the aggressiveness of prescribed treatments place enormous stress on the family of children suffering from cancer. This study was conducted to better understand the lived experiences of parents of children suffering from cancer and to document their account of such experiences. The aim of this research was to describe the lived experiences of parents of children diagnosed with cancer in Iran. This hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted between June 2008 and May 2009. Data were generated from 15 parents using in-depth interviews to capture their experiences of having children with cancer. Analysis is based on the framework of Diekelmann enabled data interpretation and elaboration of shared themes. One constitutive pattern 'Feeling trapped in the cancer dead end' and four related themes, namely 'Contradiction in reconciliation with situation', 'Doomed to accept', 'Isolation from others' and 'Devastated life', were identified. The results of this study showed that parents feel as if they are trapped by their child's disease. They are affected by several mental, social and familial issues while trying to tolerate their child's illness and conform to the new order of life.

The lived experiences of parents of children diagnosed with cancer in Iran.

Objective: This hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted with the aim to determine the emotions and coping methods of Turkish parents whose children were diagnosed with cancer.Methods: Data...

Emotions and coping methods of Turkish parents of children with cancer.

This study reports the results of eighteen Korean families living in South Korea, twenty-five Chinese families living in Taiwan, and twenty-two American families whose child had died from cancer. All the families were interviewed in their own language and in their homes. All interviews were translated and transcribed into English as needed. The impact of the child's death from cancer on the family has four broad aspects: the manifestations of grief, the experiences of support or nonsupport, the meaning of life and of death, and changes in attitudes. Illustrations are given of the similarities and differences among the American, Chinese and Korean families in their responses.

Culturally Based Interventions for Families Whose Child Dies

This studyfocuses on Koreanfamilies of asthmatic children in South Korea using a case study method to understand their experiences. Informants were 55 individual members from 16families. Analysis revealed that the parents perceived their child with asthma as having physical limitations, having psychological adjustments including both behavior changes and competence issues, and needing social adjustment. The parents reported management issues, their own emotional adjustments,feeling the burden of illness, and negative effects of the illness on the family. Thefamiliesfound the disease increasingly burdensome over time. The siblings were envious of the attention the asthmatic child received. Families experienced increased conflicts andfinancial strain.

Socioemotional experiences of Korean families with asthmatic children

This paper reports on the social and personal relevance of religious faith entering into the situation of family stress due to the illness of a child with cancer. The expectations of religious faith may include, objectively, the actual physical healing of the child or the determination of the child's fate; it may include, subjectively, the hope for emotional support, the provision of moral guidance in time of difficulty, or an overarching life-view. There were major religious changes in 20% of the families. While all the major religious faiths in South Korea were represented in the study, 61% of the sample identified Christianity as their primary religious response.

Paul V. Martinson

Papers

Impact of childhood cancer on religious life of Korean families.