Beyond individual impact: Family identity, support needs, and contextual factors in adolescent and young adult responses to parental cancer

 In light of the significant impact that parental cancer has on entire family systems, research increasingly focuses on the well-being of individual family members and partnership dynamics.

However, research on children of cancer patients remains limited, particularly regarding adolescents and young adults (AYAs) over 18 years old and those with parents facing terminal cancer diagnoses. While existing studies predominantly map psychosocial symptoms, they provide limited insights for prevention and support interventions. Additionally, psychosocial research on parental cancer often lacks a systems-theoretical perspective, failing to address how families function as cohesive units when confronting cancer diagnoses or how shared family identity—encompassing values, characteristics, and rituals—guides families through challenging transitions and influences their collective coping strategies.

Furthermore, support provision in educational settings shows considerable variability between schools and individual teachers, with unclear guidelines and insufficient awareness. This research project aims to comprehensively examine the support needs of AYAs living with parental cancer from both individual and family systems perspectives, investigate how family identity shapes collective coping with parental cancer, and explore support mechanisms within home and school contexts to develop evidence-based guidelines for effective family-centered interventions.

Project details

Duration

15 November 2021 →

Research team

• Prof. Liesbet Goubert
• Prof. Lesley Verhofstadt
• Prof. Kim Beernaert
• dr. Anne-Lore Scherrens
• Marthe Tulpin

Key themes

parental cancer, adolescents and young adults, family systems, coping strategies, support needs, family-centered care