Parents Caring for Children Diagnosed with a Blood Cancer from Infancy to Emerging Adulthood: A Life span Perspective

Understanding parents uncertainty sources and management strategies while caring for a child diagnosed with a hematologic cancer

“…They managed their personal uncertainty, as well as the impact of the diagnosis on the family system. Though not a major finding, this was sometimes discussed in the context of how cancer may impact the family, such as how it may affect their other children [also see 5 , 12 , 33 ]. Research has primarily documented individual and familial uncertainty management processes separately [ 41 ].…”

“…Data were collected as part of a larger study about family caregivers between the ages of 30–65 years who provide care for either a child or parent diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), or lymphoma [ 5 , 12 , 33 ]. The aim of the larger study was to explore experiences and needs of blood cancer caregivers for intervention development [ 34 ].…”

“…One possible contributor to parental caregivers' psychosocial stress is uncertainty [ 5 , 11 , 12 ], which is commonly experienced after a cancer diagnosis [ 13 ]. Studies regarding medical uncertainty have primarily focused on patient populations [ 14 ] such as communicating genetic risk [ [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] ] or adults living with chronic diseases like HIV/AIDS [ 20 , 21 ].…”