Maternal perception of a child with cancer

The representation of a child is an important element of mother-child relations, which allows the mother to empathise with and respond to the child's needs. A child's cancer may be reflected in the mother's representation of the child. The aim of this study was to see whether there were differences in a mother's representation of healthy and oncologically ill children.

The participants in the study include 30 mothers of oncologically ill children and 25 women with healthy children as the control group. The study used a self-constructed questionnaire containing questions about the mothers' representations of their children as well as demographic information.

Women with oncologically ill children less frequently described their children as independent, impulsive, needing food and the recognition of others, than mothers of healthy children. They also felt fear more frequently when thinking about the child. There were, however, common elements in representations of ill and healthy children. Impulsiveness and interest in computer games and movies was more often attributed to boys than girls in both categories, while helpfulness was attributed more often to older children than younger ones. Single mothers felt regret more often when thinking about the child than mothers who had some helpers.

Maternal representations of a child may include, but do not have to include, disease-related content. Perceptions of a child's independence, impulsiveness, and needs seem to be related to the child's health, but for other elements of the child's image this relation is not present.