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Updated: Jun 24, 2025

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Family adjustment and resilience after a parental cancer diagnosis
Katarina Perak1, Fiona E J McDonald2,3, Janet Conti1,4
1School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
Purpose:
To explore the resources, parents with cancer and their partners draw upon to sustain their family resilience through the cancer experience.
Methods:
Fifteen participants who were parents of children aged 8 to 25 years completed phone, audio-recorded, and semi-structured interviews. Of these participants, 11 were parents diagnosed with cancer, and four were partners of a parent diagnosed with cancer. Interview questions aimed to increase understanding about how families communicate, connect, and face challenges from the cancer experience. Interview data was analysed using inductive thematic analysis to provide scope to generate themes from parent's experiences rather than to test pre-existing frameworks.
Results:
The thematic analysis of interview transcripts generated three key themes related to family resilience: (1) adaptability to changes in roles and routines, (2) open communication within the family, and (3) accepting support from others.
Conclusion:
This study found that parents' ability to use personal resources when faced with significant challenges helped to improve the resilience of parents' family system. Further research is needed to understand the factors that influence family resilience when a parent is diagnosed with cancer. Implications for the development of targeted interventions that provide support to not only the patient, but their whole family system will be discussed.
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