Sources of emotional support for adolescents with cancer

The significance of emotional social support in the lives of children and adolescents with cancer is now being recognized as a significant determinant in their psychosocial response to the experience of cancer and treatment outcomes. The purpose of this study was to identify whom adolescents perceived as providing emotional support and how helpful these individuals were in helping them cope through the experience of cancer. Forty-five adolescents with cancer responded to the following open-ended questions regarding their perceived emotional social support: "Who or what are your primary sources of emotional support?" "How helpful are these resources to you in dealing with your experiences with cancer?" Descriptive analyses of participants' responses indicated that the adolescents' mothers and their friends were the two most often cited sources of emotional support. In addition, while responses varied among adolescents, they described their identified sources of emotional support to be very helpful to them as they lived through the experience of cancer. These findings support past research that has determined that adolescents' social support systems extend beyond the family, but that mothers continue to have a significant, meaningful role in the lives of adolescents with cancer.