The Experiences of Korean Young Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer

Abstract

Photovoice was used to understand the impact of childhood cancer on Korean young adult survivors. Seven survivors of childhood cancer (currently aged 20-27 years), diagnosed before the age of 19 and with cancer treatment completed, participated in five sessions. The participants took photographs that captured their group's weekly topics and participated in discussions about their feelings and experiences. Fifty-six photo images with narratives on the survivors' experiences were produced on these four participant-selected themes: Relationships With Others, Stigma, Overcoming Difficulties, and The Future This study on Korean childhood cancer survivors sheds light on their perspectives about the impact of cancer. Using an innovative methodology that takes the participants' point of view, this study contributes to the literature on young adult cancer survivors' quality of life and their psychosocial adjustment. The results can inform educational programs and increase public awareness by providing survivors' schoolteachers and peers with knowledge about childhood cancer.

Suicide Prevention From the Perspectives of Gay, Bisexual, and Two-Spirit Men

“…Our study employed photovoice, a research method wherein participants express and share their viewpoints and experiences by taking and narrating photographs (Wang, 1999; Wang & Burris, 1997). Photovoice has been purposefully used to engage diverse communities to produce knowledge on an array of health-related issues including cancer (Rapport et al, 2018; Yi, Kim, & An, 2015), smoking cessation (Oliffe, Bottorff, Kelly, & Halpin, 2008), stroke (Maratos, Huynh, Tan, Lui, & Jarus, 2016), and medical treatment experiences (Werremeyer, Skoy, & Aalgaard Kelly, 2017). In the specific context of mental health, photovoice has been described as an underutilized but promising methodology to advanced understanding of mental illness from the viewpoint of those with lived experience (Han & Oliffe, 2016).…”

This is what life with cancer looks like: exploring experiences of adolescent and young adults with cancer using two visual approaches

“…To the best of our knowledge, RPs, or other drawing methods, have not been used to explore experiences of AYAs with cancer before. Drawing as a method to gain insight into experiences has mostly been used among children and older adults [ 13 – 17 , 30 , 31 ]. Photovoice has been conducted with AYAs, but only with cancer survivors, not AYAs currently undergoing cancer treatment [ 24 , 32 , 33 ].…”

Using Photovoice to Explore Quality of Life Factors of Adults With Crouzon Syndrome

“…A PAR approach using Photovoice was most fitting to address the research questions. PAR has been widely used to improve numerous health issues including nurse confidence in addressing problems of chronic pain in older adults (Baker & Wang, 2006), perspectives of loss and recovery from mental illness (Mizock, Russinova, & Shani, 2014)), experiences of Korean young adult survivors of childhood cancer (Yi, Kim, & An, 2016), the quality of life of a community after disaster (Annang et al, 2016), the exploration of mothers’ experiences of new infant settling in Vietnam and pregnant embodiment in Australia (Murray & Nash, 2017). Through Photovoice, participants have greater input throughout the research process and more in-depth insights than what would have been solicited from a study that limited participant contributions to research design, data collection, and data analysis processes.…”