Mothers' efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer: a phenomenological study

Mahnaz Ghaljeh; Sally Pezaro; Marjan Mardani-Hamooleh

doi:10.1186/s12905-024-03295-6

Mothers' efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer: a phenomenological study

Mahnaz Ghaljeh, Sally Pezaro, Marjan Mardani-Hamooleh

Centre for Healthcare and Communities

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Child cancer impacts the entire family. However, those who identify as mothers may be most negatively affected due to the societal expectations placed upon them in primary caregiving. This study was conducted with the aim of exploring the lived experiences of mothers of children with cancer and their adaptation to their child's illness.

METHODS: This study employed a qualitative and hermeneutic approach using Heideggerian phenomenology as a philosophical framework. Our sampling strategy was purposive. Mothers (n = 14) of children diagnosed with cancer participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The seven-steps of critical hermeneutic analysis were used to summarize and interpret findings.

RESULTS: Analysis revealed that participants' adaptation to their child's illness occurs through comprehensive support and the utilization of empowering beliefs. The theme of comprehensive support included sub-themes of seeking informational support, seeking psychological support, and seeking social support. The theme of utilizing empowering beliefs encompassed sub-themes of resilience against cultural misconceptions and reliance on spiritual beliefs. Furthermore, one constitutive pattern 'mothers' efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer' was identified.This related to participants' striving to navigate the twists and turns of life's hardships.

CONCLUSIONS: Relationships and social context are vital and important features of this phenomena. Employing a team approach to provide comprehensive support to mothers of children with cancer involving physicians, nurses, and psychologists can be supportive in their adaptation to their child's cancer. Additionally, reductions in cultural taboos surrounding cancer could facilitate improved adaptation to childhood cancer for these mothers.

Original language	English
Article number	458
Number of pages	9
Journal	BMC Women's Health
Volume	24
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03295-6
Publication status	Published - 17 Aug 2024

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Keywords

Cancer
Children
Mother
Qualitative research

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1186/s12905-024-03295-6Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Pezaro2024VoRFinal published version, 1.43 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "Mothers' efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer: a phenomenological study",

abstract = "BACKGROUND: Child cancer impacts the entire family. However, those who identify as mothers may be most negatively affected due to the societal expectations placed upon them in primary caregiving. This study was conducted with the aim of exploring the lived experiences of mothers of children with cancer and their adaptation to their child's illness.METHODS: This study employed a qualitative and hermeneutic approach using Heideggerian phenomenology as a philosophical framework. Our sampling strategy was purposive. Mothers (n = 14) of children diagnosed with cancer participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The seven-steps of critical hermeneutic analysis were used to summarize and interpret findings.RESULTS: Analysis revealed that participants' adaptation to their child's illness occurs through comprehensive support and the utilization of empowering beliefs. The theme of comprehensive support included sub-themes of seeking informational support, seeking psychological support, and seeking social support. The theme of utilizing empowering beliefs encompassed sub-themes of resilience against cultural misconceptions and reliance on spiritual beliefs. Furthermore, one constitutive pattern 'mothers' efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer' was identified.This related to participants' striving to navigate the twists and turns of life's hardships.CONCLUSIONS: Relationships and social context are vital and important features of this phenomena. Employing a team approach to provide comprehensive support to mothers of children with cancer involving physicians, nurses, and psychologists can be supportive in their adaptation to their child's cancer. Additionally, reductions in cultural taboos surrounding cancer could facilitate improved adaptation to childhood cancer for these mothers.",

keywords = "Cancer, Children, Mother, Qualitative research",

author = "Mahnaz Ghaljeh and Sally Pezaro and Marjan Mardani-Hamooleh",

note = "This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.",

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T1 - Mothers' efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer

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AU - Ghaljeh, Mahnaz

AU - Pezaro, Sally

AU - Mardani-Hamooleh, Marjan

N1 - This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

PY - 2024/8/17

Y1 - 2024/8/17

N2 - BACKGROUND: Child cancer impacts the entire family. However, those who identify as mothers may be most negatively affected due to the societal expectations placed upon them in primary caregiving. This study was conducted with the aim of exploring the lived experiences of mothers of children with cancer and their adaptation to their child's illness.METHODS: This study employed a qualitative and hermeneutic approach using Heideggerian phenomenology as a philosophical framework. Our sampling strategy was purposive. Mothers (n = 14) of children diagnosed with cancer participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The seven-steps of critical hermeneutic analysis were used to summarize and interpret findings.RESULTS: Analysis revealed that participants' adaptation to their child's illness occurs through comprehensive support and the utilization of empowering beliefs. The theme of comprehensive support included sub-themes of seeking informational support, seeking psychological support, and seeking social support. The theme of utilizing empowering beliefs encompassed sub-themes of resilience against cultural misconceptions and reliance on spiritual beliefs. Furthermore, one constitutive pattern 'mothers' efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer' was identified.This related to participants' striving to navigate the twists and turns of life's hardships.CONCLUSIONS: Relationships and social context are vital and important features of this phenomena. Employing a team approach to provide comprehensive support to mothers of children with cancer involving physicians, nurses, and psychologists can be supportive in their adaptation to their child's cancer. Additionally, reductions in cultural taboos surrounding cancer could facilitate improved adaptation to childhood cancer for these mothers.

AB - BACKGROUND: Child cancer impacts the entire family. However, those who identify as mothers may be most negatively affected due to the societal expectations placed upon them in primary caregiving. This study was conducted with the aim of exploring the lived experiences of mothers of children with cancer and their adaptation to their child's illness.METHODS: This study employed a qualitative and hermeneutic approach using Heideggerian phenomenology as a philosophical framework. Our sampling strategy was purposive. Mothers (n = 14) of children diagnosed with cancer participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The seven-steps of critical hermeneutic analysis were used to summarize and interpret findings.RESULTS: Analysis revealed that participants' adaptation to their child's illness occurs through comprehensive support and the utilization of empowering beliefs. The theme of comprehensive support included sub-themes of seeking informational support, seeking psychological support, and seeking social support. The theme of utilizing empowering beliefs encompassed sub-themes of resilience against cultural misconceptions and reliance on spiritual beliefs. Furthermore, one constitutive pattern 'mothers' efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer' was identified.This related to participants' striving to navigate the twists and turns of life's hardships.CONCLUSIONS: Relationships and social context are vital and important features of this phenomena. Employing a team approach to provide comprehensive support to mothers of children with cancer involving physicians, nurses, and psychologists can be supportive in their adaptation to their child's cancer. Additionally, reductions in cultural taboos surrounding cancer could facilitate improved adaptation to childhood cancer for these mothers.

KW - Cancer

KW - Children

KW - Mother

KW - Qualitative research

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U2 - 10.1186/s12905-024-03295-6

DO - 10.1186/s12905-024-03295-6

M3 - Article

C2 - 39153975

SN - 1472-6874

VL - 24

JO - BMC Women's Health

JF - BMC Women's Health

M1 - 458

ER -

Mothers' efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer: a phenomenological study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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Correction: Mothers’ efforts to overcome difficult twists and turns in living with children with cancer: a phenomenological study

Cite this