• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.309-322
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• 2017

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experience of mothers who have had children with cancer. Participants were seven mothers who had children diagnosed with cancer between 3 to 36 months. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews and analyzed by Colaizzi's phenomenological methodology. Overall, 216 significant statements, 62 formulated statements, 16 themes and five theme clusters were identified. The five theme clusters were 'heartbreaking sadness', 'arduous journey of battling', 'protect my child', 'feeling varying between gratitude and disappointment', and 'suffering and wishing to be with family'. Mothers who have had children with pediatric cancer receiving chemotherapy have experienced strong emotional fluctuations as well as hope as they cope with their ill child. However, they try to become strong women and embrace their family to cope with their situation. The results of this study will support for health professionals to understand mothers who have had children with cancer and to consider the supportive nursing care in considering mothers' emotional fluctuation.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.221-231
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the need for child hospice care programs in families of children with cancer. Methods: The survey of 104 families who were taking care of children with cancer was conducted. This survey was conducted from February 2004 to July 2004 at two general hospitals in Seoul. The data were collected through a self-reporting questionnaire of 22 items. The items were classified into five areas by factor analysis to identify the construct validity. The reliability of the tool was established by Cronbach's alpha as .94 and the data collected were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. Results: 1) The degree of need for hospice care of the subjects showed a high average of 3.40 (${\pm}3.8$). The need for 'emotional care of children' showed the highest mean (M=3.55), 'management of terminal physical symptoms'(M=3.49), 'control of secondary physical problems' (M=3.41), 'acceptance of the family's difficulty' (M=3.20), 'spiritual care for preparing for death'(M=3.17), respectively. 2) With respect to the demographic characteristics of the subjects, there were statistically significant differences in hospice care needs, according to the child's mother's age (F==4.980, P=.009), whether or not there were cancer patients among their siblings or relatives (t=2.423, P=.017). Conclusion: The family of children with cancer have a heavy burden of ambivalence, especially in relieving the anxiety and fear of their children, communicating about death, and managing physical symptoms. Child hospice care must be provided considering the needs of families of children with cancer. Thus popular needs as well as hospice nurses' higher concern and support for hospice care of children require further education and program development to meet the current demands.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.262-273
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• 2000

The goal of this study was to develop a method to measure the degree of hope of mothers whom their children have cancer. Data collection was held on 144 mothers who had their children diagnosed as cancer, and were treated in C hospital and S hospital located in Seoul. The data was collected from January to August of the year 1999, and collected data was then computerized for T-test, factor analysis and ANOVA. The results are as follows: 1) The measurement method used to measure the degree of hope was divided into 7 categories and composed of 35 questions in total. The level of confidence was 0.90. The 7 categories were named 'gaining insight into life', 'realizing oneself's own role in life', 'attempting a change in life', 'taking in destiny', 'having trust in the treatment being held out by the medical faculty', 'recognizing or escaping from reality' 'obtaining support from religion' respectively. 2) The average score of mothers with cancer children was 3.22. The 6th category 'recognizing or escaping from reality', had the highest score and the 1st category of 'gaining insight into life' the lowest. 3) The degree of hope did not have any differences according to the general characteristics of the children with cancer and the characteristics of the disease. However there was a difference following the characteristics of the mothers with cancer children. Mothers with jobs tend to have scored higher compared with mothers without any occupation.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.142-151
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• 2016

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify the effects of hope and Self-efficacy on posttraumatic growth in mothers of children with cancers. Methods: A descriptive research design was used and 102 mothers participated in the study. They were primary care givers of children with cancers who were being treated at a tertiary care hospital in Seoul. A structured questionnaires which measured the degree of hope, self-efficacy, and posttraumatic growth was used for data collection. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regression. Results: There were positive correlations between posttraumatic growth and hope (r=.44, p<.001) as well as self-efficacy (r=.33, p=.003). The major predictors of posttraumatic growth were religion (${\beta}=0.29$, p=.001), only child or first child (${\beta}=-0.25$, p=.015), the number of children in the family (${\beta}=0.25$, p=.016), and hope (${\beta}=0.38$, p=.001). This model explained about 30.4% of the total variables found in posttraumatic growth (F=9.84, p<.001). Conclusion: The findings from this study show that posttraumatic growth in mothers of children with cancers is largely predicted by hope indicating a need to develop nursing intervention programs to enhance hope in these mothers.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2001

The purpose of the descriptive correlation study was to examine relations among the hope, the burden and the family function in mothers caring for children with cancer. 145 mothers completed the three questionaires of the study divided into tree sections: a) The Hope Scale, b) The Burden Scale, c) FACES-Ⅲ. The collected data was analysed with t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test and Pearson correlation coefficients. The results were as follows: 1) The average age of mothers of children with cancer was 35.6 years old and the ages between 30 to 39 were the most abundant. 57.3％ of the mothers had an education level of below high school education and 66.0％ had religion. The average age of the children was 8.6 years old. Ages between 1 to 7 were the most and 60.8％ were diagnosed as leukemia. 2) Regarding the section of degree of burden, mothers of children with cancer marked 2.6 out of 5, and the degree of hope 3.2 out of 4. The result for family function came out to be 3.5 out of 5, an average of family cohesion of 3.9 and family adaptation of 3.1. 3) There were significantly less burden to the mothers who were living together with a spouse compared to the mothers who were not. Also mothers who replied that they preserved good health came out to be exposed to less burden compared to the mothers who did not. In analysing hope according to the general characteristics of mothers of children with cancer, mothers who were employed marked high in the degree of hope compared to unemployed mothers. Furthermore, the degree of family cohesion marked higher with mothers who had higher education of college graduate, mothers with religion and mothers with a monthly family income of over ￦3,000,000, compared to the group of mothers with lower education of high school graduate, non-religious or with a monthly family income of less than ￦1,000,000. 4) Excluding the fact that the group sorted with children diagnosed as leukemia marked a perceivably high score regarding family cohesion, compared to groups with other cancers, the degree of burden, hope and family cohesion did not show any noticeable difference according to characteristics of children with different cancers. 5) In the correlation of the hope, the burden and the family function regarding the mothers of children with cancer, the burden did not have any manifest relationship with hope or family function. However, the degree of hope and family function cohesion had a direct proportional relationship, as family cohesion marked higher when the degree of hope were high.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.268-276
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• 2006

Purpose: this study is attempted to provide basic data on development of systematic discharge educational programs for discharging cancer patients. Method: The subjects of this study were 132 mothers whose children were diagnosed with cancer and being treated at 3 university hospitals in Busan. The data were collected from December 1 to February 28, 2005, and were analyzed Using SPSS WIN 10.0. Result: The degree of education at the time of discharge from hospital was statistically significantly lower than that of educational demand after the discharge. Such demand significantly varied in accordance with the length of period passed after the discharge. Mother’s educational demand was significantly different in accordance with generation characteristics of her child with cancer, especially the first period of hospitalization and change in weight Conclusions: mothers of children with cancer were higher in educational demand after the child’s discharge from hospital than in education provided at the time of the discharge. Such demand was different in accordance with the length of period passed after the child's discharge from hospital.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how adolescent survivors of childhood cancer grieve the death of cancer peers. Methods: Data were obtained from Korean adolescents with cancer between the ages of 13 and 18 (N=12) through semi-structured interviews (face-to-face, telephone, and Internet chatting), observations of the social dynamics of participants in self-help groups, and retrieval of personal Web journals. Based on the grounded theory methodology, data collection and analysis were conducted simultaneously, and constant comparative methods were used. Clarke's situational analysis was adopted, and this paper focused on presenting "how to" and "what we can learn" from this analytic strategy. Results: Mapping examples were visualized using of three modes of maps. Adolescent cancer survivors coped with reminders of the "darkness" that ultimately featured their overall grief. Additionally, adolescents' encounters and avoidance of grief were triggered by introspection and interactions with family and friends. Conclusion: Situational analysis provided an efficient way to analyze the experiences of adolescent survivors of childhood cancer by systematizing possible information within the relational social contexts of the research phenomenon.