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The purpose of this qualitative research is to provide an in-depth exploration of the impact that a diagnosis of a terminal illness has on family functioning. The goal is to gain insight into adult children's personal experience when a parent is diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer. This study explores how families respond, adapt and cope when this specific family member is diagnosed with a terminal illness. It also explores any significant changes in relationships within the family and any shifts in the roles of the members and how they adjusted to such shifts. / The study is informed by a phenomenological paradigm and used an explorative, qualitative design, which included semi-structured interviews. Participant text and "found poetry" is used in order to present a more accurate account of the participants' experiences. Found poetry provides an opportunity to hear the participant's voices by taking direct quotes from their transcripts and forming them into a poem. Themes of denial, anger, helplessness, hope and anticipatory grief/mourning are portrayed in the findings of this study. The difficult emotional dilemmas and tensions that people have to work through when faced with a family member dying are discussed. The realization of the loss of future relationships will be identified as one of the greatest impacts of the illness. This study shows the lack of professional supports and resources that are available for each participant's family in being faced with the diagnosis of a terminal illness, and will address a needed consideration for social work practice.

This interpretive descriptive study explored the meaning and lived experience of breast cancer for 5 mothers and their 5 adolescent daughters, and for these mother-daughter relationships. Mothers had been diagnosed with breast cancer between 2 and 6 years ago, and their daughters were between 11 and 13 years old at the time of the diagnosis. A series of six in-depth interviews with mothers and daughters, conducted both jointly and separately, afforded a view of aspects of experience that were shared and privately held. Interview data were supplemented with participants' drawings of their experience, and the researcher's observations. The interpretive descriptive framework employed was augmented with the lens of portraiture in the conduct of study, data analysis, and composition of the product of inquiry. Portraiture utilizes five essential features: voice, relationship, context, emergent themes, and aesthetic whole. Individual and relational experience and meaning were described in four themes: (a) Inhabiting Another Landscape, (b) Intending and Acting, (c) Acquiring Wisdom, and (d) Enduring Mother-Daughter Relationships. The theme of Inhabiting Another Landscape described a trajectory of experience and meaning that began with diagnosis, persisted through prolonged effects of treatment, and continued in the present and into imagined futures. Mothers and daughters had privately held concerns about the mothers' breast cancer and the possibility that breast cancer might one day visit daughters as well. The most prominent reminder of vulnerability was recurrence among friends in the social networks of breast cancer. The theme of Intending and Acting described the mutual caring and protectiveness of these mothers and daughters. Mothers and daughters described actions and strategies to minimize the threat of breast cancer for themselves and for the other person. Actions included attempts by both persons to create and maintain a sense of normalcy. Conversations between mothers and daughters on the experience of breast cancer were limited, in particular around prognosis and the possibility of death. The theme of Acquiring Wisdom described personal growth and change after the diagnosis of breast cancer. For both persons, realizations of mortality brought a new perspective on what was important in life. Mothers passed on the wisdom gained from their experience either directly in what was said to daughters or indirectly in the attitudes and behaviours they modelled. The theme of Enduring Mother-Daughter Relationships described the quality of mother-daughter relationships and the import of breast cancer for these relationships. Mothers and daughters described their relationships as close. Daughters described their relationships as closer than most, in part because of their experience with breast cancer. Parenting and being parented was in some cases complicated by breast cancer. Friction between mothers and daughters was described as par for the course during the teen years, but one source of friction was the unexpected and prolonged effects of treatment. The findings in this study indicate the value in attending to the voices of teenage daughters, which remain largely absent in the literature. Mothers and daughters have needs for information and support that are not being met. The emotional landscape of breast cancer, which entails prolonged uncertainty for both mothers and daughters, deserves further study. Personal growth described by both mothers and daughters provides an alternative view of the largely problem-focused perspective in the literature of the meaning and experience of breast cancer.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of gender, time since diagnosis, and the family environment on the psychosocial adaptation of cancer patients. This study was important because there is a deficit in the literature investigating the effects of the family environment on psychosocial adaptation in male and female cancer patients with diverse diagnoses. This study measured psychosocial adaptation by the patient's ability to adjust to cancer-related stressors in the areas of social relationships, involvement in health care, psychological well-being, household and work related duties, and family relationships. The family environment was measured by the patient's perceived level of cohesion, expressiveness, and conflict in the family.The study's sample consisted of 149 stage I or II cancer patients over the age of 50 with no prior cancer diagnosis, recurrence, or metastases. Participants completed a set of questionnaires, including the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale and the Family Relationship Index. The combination of gender, time since diagnosis, and the family environment, with demographic variables held constant, was significant and accounted for nearly one-third (27 %) of the variance in cancer patients' psychosocial adaptation. Results showed that the family environment is a significant predictor of psychosocial adaptation in cancer patients. Gender and time since diagnosis were not significantly related to psychosocial adaptation. Implications from this study are offered. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Please read the abstract (Summary) in the section, 00front, of this document / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / PhD / unrestricted

This interpretive descriptive study explored the meaning and lived experience of breast cancer for 5 mothers and their 5 adolescent daughters, and for these mother-daughter relationships. Mothers had been diagnosed with breast cancer between 2 and 6 years ago, and their daughters were between 11 and 13 years old at the time of the diagnosis. A series of six in-depth interviews with mothers and daughters, conducted both jointly and separately, afforded a view of aspects of experience that were shared and privately held. Interview data were supplemented with participants' drawings of their experience, and the researcher's observations. The interpretive descriptive framework employed was augmented with the lens of portraiture in the conduct of study, data analysis, and composition of the product of inquiry. Portraiture utilizes five essential features: voice, relationship, context, emergent themes, and aesthetic whole. Individual and relational experience and meaning were described in four themes: (a) Inhabiting Another Landscape, (b) Intending and Acting, (c) Acquiring Wisdom, and (d) Enduring Mother-Daughter Relationships. The theme of Inhabiting Another Landscape described a trajectory of experience and meaning that began with diagnosis, persisted through prolonged effects of treatment, and continued in the present and into imagined futures. Mothers and daughters had privately held concerns about the mothers' breast cancer and the possibility that breast cancer might one day visit daughters as well. The most prominent reminder of vulnerability was recurrence among friends in the social networks of breast cancer. The theme of Intending and Acting described the mutual caring and protectiveness of these mothers and daughters. Mothers and daughters described actions and strategies to minimize the threat of breast cancer for themselves and for the other person. Actions included attempts by both persons to create and maintain a sense of normalcy. Conversations between mothers and daughters on the experience of breast cancer were limited, in particular around prognosis and the possibility of death. The theme of Acquiring Wisdom described personal growth and change after the diagnosis of breast cancer. For both persons, realizations of mortality brought a new perspective on what was important in life. Mothers passed on the wisdom gained from their experience either directly in what was said to daughters or indirectly in the attitudes and behaviours they modelled. The theme of Enduring Mother-Daughter Relationships described the quality of mother-daughter relationships and the import of breast cancer for these relationships. Mothers and daughters described their relationships as close. Daughters described their relationships as closer than most, in part because of their experience with breast cancer. Parenting and being parented was in some cases complicated by breast cancer. Friction between mothers and daughters was described as par for the course during the teen years, but one source of friction was the unexpected and prolonged effects of treatment. The findings in this study indicate the value in attending to the voices of teenage daughters, which remain largely absent in the literature. Mothers and daughters have needs for information and support that are not being met. The emotional landscape of breast cancer, which entails prolonged uncertainty for both mothers and daughters, deserves further study. Personal growth described by both mothers and daughters provides an alternative view of the largely problem-focused perspective in the literature of the meaning and experience of breast cancer. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)