Informing Children About a Parent's Terminal Illness

Abstract

It has been suggested that supplying children with explicit information about the terminal illness of a parent is likely to enhance their coping with anxiety. To examine this claim, the anxiety level of 18 children who were informed by their parents was compared with that of 26 children who were not thus informed. The anxiety of the informed group was significantly lower. The results also show meaningful differences between developmental levels among the non-informed only. Possible explanations and implications of the results are discussed.

Telling Adolescents a Parent Is Dying

“…Rosenheim and Reicher's 28 seminal study revealed that anxiety was significantly lower among children who were informed about the parent's life-threatening cancer diagnosis than those who were not informed. MacPherson 19 found that the spectrum of disclosure ranged from neither parent talking about the impending death to both parents actively preparing the children for the death.…”

Autoprotection et protection émotionnelles: perspectives des enfants sur leur adaptation face au cancer et à la chimiothérapie de leur mère

“…Whittham (1993) affirme que les enfants peuvent s'impliquer activement et peuvent tirer des bienfaits de l'aide qu'ils se donnent lorsqu'on les met au courant de la situation en toute franchise. La divulgation est perçue comme étant bénéfique (Rosenheim et Reicher, 1985). Elsegood souligne qu'une fois qu'on a annoncé la mauvaise nouvelle aux enfants, ceux-ci peuvent et devraient avoir l'occasion de prendre une part active à la décision concernant ce qu'ils aimeraient apprendre d'autre.…”

Resources review

“…For example, relatives in one retrospective study had a stronger desire to receive copies of their GP's letters than the patients themselves. 27 Likewise, children of parents with cancer coped better when informed of the diagnosis 28,29 and had lower levels of anxiety when given more complete information. 30,31 A new development in our service is to oer information in the form of a video cassette as at least one study suggested that this format would be welcomed by the majority of patients 9 The emphasis is diverted away from the written word into vision and movement and patients can watch it in the comfort of their own home and share the learning experience with their relatives and friends.…”