Family responses and mechanisms of adjustment following death of children with cancer

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In this study of the effects of death of a child from malignancy on the immediate family, it was found that 62 of 93 families wished to participate and that, in 50%, there was evidence of family dysfunction. Factors that appeared to be associated with dysfunciton included older parental age, lower educational achievement, previous social and psychological disturbances, poor family communication and lack of support from within the family by one or other of the parents. In 45% of the families, one or other sibling showed an abnormality of behaviour which was usually transient. The deceased children in the study had not been informed of their imminent death. In those families in which the parents perceived that their child knew that he was dying, there was a significantly higher incidence of family disturbance. In the absence of prospective clinical trials on the effects on the child and the family of informing the child that he was dying, it is not possible to draw conclusions on the above finding.