"It's Hard Not to Have Regrets:" Qualitative Analysis of Decisional Regret in Bereaved Parents

Bereaved parents may have heightened risk for decisional regret; however, little is known about regret early in bereavement.

We characterized decisional regrets endorsed by parents of children who died from cancer within the first two years of their bereavement.

We analyzed responses from a cross-sectional, dual site study of parents six to 24 months from their child's death. Parents indicated whether they had regrets about decisions made at the end of their child's life (yes/no/I don't know) and elaborated with free text. We used content analysis to identify recurrent categories in parents' responses.

A total of 125 parents of 88 children completed the survey; 123 responded to the decisional regret item and 84 (63%) elaborated with free text. Forty-seven (38%) parents reported decisional regret(s), 61 (50%) indicated no regret(s), and 15 (12%) were unsure. Parental free-text responses related to five categories: treatments, including those pursued and/or not pursued (n = 57), decision-making processes (n = 35), relationships with their child and care team (n = 26), child suffering (n = 10), and end-of-life characteristics (n = 6). The relative frequency of categories was similar in parents with and without decisional regret, but self-blame was more common in responses from parents with decisional regret.

Many bereaved parents endorse decisional regret in early bereavement. Treatments and decision-making processes were most cited among parents both with and without regret. Identifying factors associated with heightened parental risk of decisional regret using longitudinal study is an important focus of future research.