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Upping my game as a parent: Attributed gains in participating in a cancer parenting program for child-rearing parents with advanced cancer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Ellen H. Zahlis Open the ORCID record for Ellen H. Zahlis [Opens in a new window] ,
Mary Ellen Shands  and
Frances Marcus Lewis
Ellen H. Zahlis*
Affiliation:
Child, Family & Population Health Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle Campus, 1959 Pacific Street, Box 357262, Seattle, WA
Mary Ellen Shands
Affiliation:
Child, Family & Population Health Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle Campus, 1959 Pacific Street, Box 357262, Seattle, WA
Frances Marcus Lewis
Affiliation:
Child, Family & Population Health Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle Campus, 1959 Pacific Street, Box 357262, Seattle, WA
*
Author for correspondence: Ellen H. Zahlis, Child, Family & Population Health, University of Washington Seattle Campus, 1959 Pacific Street, Box 357262, Seattle, WA98195-0005, USA. E-mail: zahlis@uw.edu
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Abstract

Objectives

The objective of this study was to describe in the words of child-rearing parents with incurable cancer, what they had gained or thought about as a result of participating in a five-session, scripted, telephone-delivered psycho-educational parenting intervention, the Enhancing Connections Program in Palliative Care.

Methods

A total of 26 parents completed the program. Parents’ responses were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and verified for accuracy. The analysis proceeded through four steps: unitizing, coding into categories, defining categories, and formation of a core construct that explained parents’ attributed gains. Trustworthiness of study results was protected by coding to consensus, formal peer debriefing, and maintaining an audit trail.

Results

Although 50% reached or exceeded clinical cutoff scores on anxiety and 42% reached or exceeded clinical cutoff scores on depressed mood, parents extensively elaborated what they gained. Results revealed six categories of competencies they attributed to their participation in the program: (1) being ready for a conversation about my cancer, (2) bringing things out in the open, (3) listening better to my child, (4) getting my child to open up, (5) not getting in my child's way, and (6) changing my parenting.

Conclusions

Despite an extensive symptom burden, parents with incurable cancer attributed major gains from a brief, fully scripted, cancer parenting communication intervention. A manualized telephone-delivered educational counseling program for symptomatic parents with incurable cancer has the potential to augment competencies for parents as they assist their children manage the cancer experience.

Keywords

Advanced cancerChild adjustmentParental cancerPilot feasibility study
Type
Original Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , June 2020 , pp. 339 - 345
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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