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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.

As the development of medical treatments and the increase in longevity of human life interface with the rising cost of medical care, the issue of quality of life appears to be coming to the forefront in understanding how health care decisions will best be realized for patients. Ethical questions relating to matters such as cost-effective economics, physician-assisted suicide, and quantity of life versus quality of life make the construct of quality of life even more important to ascertain.Quality of life can be an elusive construct to define as well as a difficult one to measure; however, recent literature has shown promising trends. Many quality-of-life measures have been developed in recent years. Initially these measures focused on life satisfaction in general. Then instruments for healthrelated concerns were developed. In the last decade such measures have become more specific as several have emerged to identify the quality-of-life experience regarding a particular illness, such as cancer. The current step is the development of measures for specific populations in oncology. Another trend is the move from objective to subjective measures of assessment. A third trend is movement toward a multidimensional perspective, with the latest addition being the inclusion of a spiritual domain.This project explored the unique experience of cancer patients with recurrent or metastatic disease by utilizing qualitative methodology to describe common themes which emerged from the data. Focus group sessions centered around defining quality of life and discussing the factors that diminish or enhance a meaningful quality of life. A unique contribution of this study was the involvement of the participants as co-researchers in the analysis of the data. Thirteen central themes were identified: control, attitude, humor, death, gratitude, faith, fear, pain, social comparison, social support, financial concerns, information and knowledge, and the focus group experience. The findings confirmed the recent trends in quality-of-life research--multidimensionality, subjectivity, and the uniqueness of a specific cancer population, those with recurrent or metastatic disease. With this elicitative data, future research could include the development of a quality-of-life instrument for this population of oncology patients with more advanced cancer. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Includes bibliography (v. 2, leaves 80-93) / 2 v. : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Aims to develop a tool to measure parents' approaches to the management of their children's asthma, and to also identify the influence of psychosocial factors on parents' management of childhood asthma. In order to do this the author developed a questionnaire asking parents to describe their management approaches to typical asthma scenarios. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychiatry, 1998

Thesis (M.A.)--Lancaster Bible College, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-87).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2008. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (PhD) - Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, 2007. / Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology - 2007. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-242).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 2, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-42).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007. / A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, School of Nursing, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.