Family Functioning and Therapeutic Interventions When a Parent Has Cancer

A cancer diagnosis reverberates throughout the family system. Health professionals have identified the need to understand what happens within the family system when a parent has been diagnosed with cancer and there are children at home. This was sparked by concern regarding family member response at the individual, couple, and family system level. Researchers have conducted qualitative and quantitative studies to obtain the family members’ perspectives of their family’s functioning. The mother was initially the reporter of what was happening in the family, but over the last 20 years, the perspective of the ill parent as well as other family members, including the children, has been included. Although most studies have been cross-sectional, there are longitudinal studies that have examined whether perspectives change over time. As a consequence, some patterns of response have been noted across studies, which have also been supported when the father has been the ill parent. Decreased family functioning and a mother experiencing depressive symptoms are important risk factors for potential child and adolescent psychological problems. This chapter will present evidence of family functioning when a parent has cancer and its relationship to child and adolescent emotional responses. Strategies for intervention are suggested to address the information and psychological health needs of parents and their children. Implications for healthcare professionals and future research are discussed.