Parenting a child with cancer: Perceptions of adolescents and parents of adolescents and younger children following completion of childhood cancer treatment

Abstract

Objective: Research examining the impact of childhood cancer on parenting is limited. This qualitative study explored perceptions from adolescents and parents of the impact of childhood cancer on parenting 2–5 years post-end of treatment. Methods: Fifty-seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with: (a) 14 parents of preadolescent children (the ‘parents of children’ group); and (b) 21 adolescents and 22 parents of adolescents (the ‘adolescents and their parents’ group; N = 43). Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify and interpret themes. Results: Six main themes emerged: (1) Parenting strategies: relaxing discipline, bribing and spoiling children; (2) Regressive parenting; (3) Structured parenting: keeping up a ‘normal’ routine; (4) Intimacy, closeness and emotional support; (5) Differential parenting; and (6) Parental protectiveness. Some themes were group specific, whilst other themes emerged for both the ‘parents of children’ and ‘adolescents and their parents’ groups. Some reports of parenting were associated with initial stages of cancer whereas other aspects of parenting attitudes and behaviours appeared to exist after the demands of diagnosis and treatment. This suggests that there is some overlap in the parenting strategies used during ‘active’ stages of the disease and survivorship. Conclusion: Our results highlight the importance of understanding parenting processes that can operate throughout the disease trajectory for families experiencing paediatric cancer. Parenting is an ongoing process and as such, parenting intervention efforts should not be limited to the active treatment phase of a child’s diagnosis.