Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T03:52:46.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Parents’ views on what facilitated or complicated their grief after losing a child to cancer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2020

Lilian Pohlkamp Open the ORCID record for Lilian Pohlkamp [Opens in a new window] ,
Josefin Sveen ,
Ulrika Kreicbergs  and
Malin Lövgren
Lilian Pohlkamp*
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Sciences, Palliative Research Centre, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Stockholm, Sweden
Josefin Sveen
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Sciences, Palliative Research Centre, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Stockholm, Sweden Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Ulrika Kreicbergs
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Sciences, Palliative Research Centre, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Stockholm, Sweden Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Malin Lövgren
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Sciences, Palliative Research Centre, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Stockholm, Sweden Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
*
Author for correspondence: Lilian Pohlkamp, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Stigbergsgatan 30, 100 61 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives

The loss of a child is a devastating event, and bereaved parents often suffer intense and long-lasting grief reactions and are at risk for psychological symptoms. More knowledge about how parents cope with grief may improve the support to bereaved parents. This study, therefore, aimed to explore parents’ views on what facilitated or complicated their grief coping after losing a child to cancer.

Methods

This study was derived from a nationwide postal survey. Cancer-bereaved parents (n = 161) provided written responses to two open-ended questions: “Is there anything that has helped you cope with your grief after your child's death?” and “Is there anything that made it difficult for you to cope with your grief?” Content analysis was used to analyze the responses.

Results

Parents reported that a supportive social network of family and friends, and having remaining children, facilitated their coping with grief. Meeting professional counselors and meeting other bereaved parents, connecting to memories of the deceased child in various contexts, including school and pediatric care settings, were also reported facilitating grief coping. Parents stated that the following experiences had complicated grief coping: additional losses in their family or social network; not being able to share emotions with their partner; when they perceived that friends, relatives, or colleagues lacked empathy or patience; when they felt challenging demands from employers at a too early stage.

Significance of results

This study contributes to the understanding of parents’ grief experiences and what has facilitated or complicated their coping with grief, which can help health care professionals and others improve bereavement support services.

Keywords

BereavementCopingGriefParentsPediatric oncology
Type
Original Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 19 , Issue 5 , October 2021 , pp. 524 - 529
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Archer, J (2008) Theories of grief: Past, present, and future perspectives. In Stroebe, M, Hansson, R, Schut, H and Stroebe, W (eds.), Handbook of Bereavement Research and Practice: Advances in Theory and Intervention. WA: American Psychological Association, pp. 45–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrera, M, D'Agostino, NM, Schneiderman, G, et al. (2007) Patterns of parental bereavement following the loss of a child and related factors. OMEGA — Journal of Death and Dying 55(2), 145–167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogensperger, J and Lueger-Schuster, B (2014) Losing a child: Finding meaning in bereavement. European Journal of Psychotraumatology 5, article no. 22910.10.3402/ejpt.v5.22910CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchi, S, Morgeli, H, Schnyder, U, et al. (2007) Grief and post-traumatic growth in parents 2–6 years after the death of their extremely premature baby. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 76(2), 106–114.10.1159/000097969CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dussel, V, Bona, K, Heath, JA, et al. (2011) Unmeasured costs of a child's death: Perceived financial burden, work disruptions, and economic coping strategies used by American and Australian families who lost children to cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology 29(8), 1007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Field, N, Gao, B and Paderna, L (2005) Continuing bonds in bereavement: An attachment theory based perspective. Death Studies 29(4), 277–299.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hendrickson, K (2009) Morbidity, mortality, and parental grief: A review of the literature on the relationship between the death of a child and the subsequent health of parents. Palliative & Supportive Care 7(1), 109–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hsieh, HF and Shannon, SE (2005) Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research 15(9), 1277–1288.10.1177/1049732305276687CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kearney, JA and Byrne, MW (2015) Understanding parental behavior in pediatric palliative care: Attachment theory as a paradigm. Palliative & Supportive Care 13(6), 1559–1568.10.1017/S147895151300134XCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keesee, NJ, Currier, JM and Neimeyer, RA (2008) Predictors of grief following the death of one's child: The contribution of finding meaning. Journal of Clinical Psychology 64(10), 1145–1163.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kreicbergs, U, Valdimarsdottir, U, Onelov, E, et al. (2004) Anxiety and depression in parents 4–9 years after the loss of a child owing to a malignancy: A population-based follow-up. Psychological Medicine 34(8), 1431–1441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kreicbergs, UC, Lannen, P, Onelöv, E, et al. (2007) Parental grief after losing a child to cancer: Impact of professional and social support on long-term outcomes. Journal of Clinical Oncology 25(22), 3307–3312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lannen, P, Wolfe, J, Prigerson, HG, et al. (2008) Unresolved grief in a national sample of bereaved parents: Impaired mental and physical health 4 to 9 years later. Journal of Clinical Oncology 26(36), 5870–5876.10.1200/JCO.2007.14.6738CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lichtenthal, WG and Breitbart, W (2015) The central role of meaning in adjustment to the loss of a child to cancer: Implications for the development of meaning-centered grief therapy. Current Opinion in Supportive Palliative Care 9(1), 46–51.10.1097/SPC.0000000000000117CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lichtenthal, WG, Sweeney, CR, Roberts, KE, et al. (2015) Bereavement follow-up after the death of a child as a standard of care in pediatric oncology. Pediatric Blood & Cancer 62(Suppl. 5), S834–869.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lichtenthal, WG, Catarozoli, C, Masterson, M, et al. (2019) An open trial of meaning-centered grief therapy: Rationale and preliminary evaluation. Palliative & Supportive Care 17(1), 2–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meert, KL, Thurston, CS and Thomas, R (2001) Parental coping and bereavement outcome after the death of a child in the pediatric intensive care unit. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine 2(4), 324–328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neimeyer, RA (2019) Meaning reconstruction in bereavement: Development of a research program. Death Studies 43(2), 79–91.10.1080/07481187.2018.1456620CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neimeyer, RA, Prigerson, HG and Davies, B (2016) Mourning and meaning. American Behavioral Scientist 46(2), 235–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nuss, SL (2014) Redefining parenthood: Surviving the death of a child. Cancer Nursing 37(1), E51–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parkes, C (1993) Attachment Across the Life Cycle. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pohlkamp, L, Kreicbergs, U and Sveen, J (2019) Factors during a child's illness are associated with levels of prolonged grief symptoms in bereaved mothers and fathers. Journal of Clinical Oncology 38, 137–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rando, TA (1983) An investigation of grief and adaptation in parents whose children have died from cancer. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 8(1), 3–20.10.1093/jpepsy/8.1.3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, LP, LaMontagne, LL, Hepworth, JT, et al. (2007) Parental grief responses and personal growth following the death of a child. Death Studies 31(4), 277–299.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenberg, AR, Baker, KS, Syrjala, K, et al. (2012) Systematic review of psychosocial morbidities among bereaved parents of children with cancer. Pediatric Blood & Cancer 58(4), 503–512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubin, S and Shechory-Stahl, M (2013) The continuing bonds of bereaved parents: A ten-year follow-up study with the two-track model of bereavement. OMEGA — Journal of Death and Dying 66(4), 365–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sirkiä, K, Saarinen-Pihkala, U and Hovi, L (2000) Coping of parents and siblings with the death of a child with cancer: Death after terminal care compared with death during active anticancer therapy. Acta Paediatrica 89(6), 717–721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snaman, J, Morris, SE, Rosenberg, AR, et al. (2019) Reconsidering early parental grief following the death of a child from cancer: A new framework for future research and bereavement support. Supportive Care in Cancer, 1–9.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-019-05249-3.Google ScholarPubMed
Stroebe, M and Schut, H (1999) The dual process model of coping with bereavement: Rationale and description. Death Studies 23(3), 197–224.Google ScholarPubMed
Stroebe, M and Schut, H (2015) Family matters in bereavement: Toward an integrative intra-interpersonal coping model. Perspectives on Psychological Science 10(6), 873–879.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weidner, NJ, Cameron, M, Lee, RC, et al. (2011) End-of-life care for the dying child: What matters most to parents. Journal of Palliative Care 27(4), 279–286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xu, W, Fu, Z, He, L, et al. (2015) Growing in times of grief: Attachment modulates bereaved adults’ posttraumatic growth after losing a family member to cancer. Psychiatry Research 230(1), 108–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar