Timing is everything: the experience of parental cancer for young adult daughters--a pilot study

Parental cancer during young adulthood is unexpected and potentially disruptive to the developmental goals of this period. This study explores how young adult women experience a parent's cancer diagnosis and treatment. The sample included five participants, aged 20 to 32, who had a parent receiving cancer treatment. The interactive interview format, derived from an autoethnographic approach, allowed the first author (J. P.) to include her own experiences of her mother's cancer in the data. Analysis of the transcribed interviews revealed a number of themes including time, hope and spirituality, the meaning of cancer, relationships, family and coping. Time, an overriding theme in the interviews, is the focus of this article. Sub-themes under time include (1) unexpected timing, (2) uncertainty/waiting, (3) being present, (4) concerns for future, (5) acceleration of time, (6) illness progression and (7) holidays. This research revealed that a daughter's perception of time was altered by her parent's illness, and it also highlighted the significance of parental illness during young adulthood. Practitioners working with this population should be aware of issues related to timing so that daughters can be supported in coping with their parents' illnesses, and in achieving the developmental goals of this transitional phase of the life course.