A comparison of coping styles and patterns of accessing support between mothers and fathers who have a child diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL): using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

Lammie, Claire (2015) A comparison of coping styles and patterns of accessing support between mothers and fathers who have a child diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL): using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). D Clin Psy thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Background and aims:
Leukaemia is a cancer of the blood and is the most common type of childhood cancer with almost 500 new cases every year in the UK. There is a vast amount of research exploring the experiences of parents of children with cancer, however, there is less research focussed on parents whose children are in the maintenance phase of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) treatment. This treatment phase usually occurs in the first or second year following diagnosis but can start much earlier. The maintenance phase still involves active treatment but with less visits to and stays in hospital. At this stage, parents have been through the most intense segment of the treatment regimen and may have encountered various Khalighyprotocol may therefore have valuable advice to provide to other parents regarding coping and useful supports.
This study aimed to explore the coping style and patterns of accessing support in mothers and fathers who have a child diagnosed with ALL and who are in the maintenance phase of treatment. The aim was also to explore whether there were differences between mothers and fathers with regards to coping and support.

Methods:
Three mothers and two fathers were interviewed separately using a semi structured interview. These interviews were then transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

Results:
Four main themes were identified through interviews with parents: the parental role; internal coping strategies; external coping strategies; and looking to the future.

Conclusions:
Parents were found to use a variety of coping strategies and accessed various sources of support to help them to deal with their child’s ALL diagnosis. These coping strategies could be shared with parents who are new to the haematology service. There were however, significant difficulties with recruitment which means it was not possible to compare mothers and fathers in terms of coping style and types of support accessed. This highlights that the recruitment strategy needs revising if further research is to be conducted in this area.

• Item Type: Thesis (D Clin Psy)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: parental, coping, support, child, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology; R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics; R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services
• Colleges/Schools: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Mental Health and Wellbeing
• Supervisor's Name: Wilson, Dr. Sarah and McHugh, Dr. Kathleen
• Date of Award: 2015
• Depositing User: Miss Claire Lammie
• Unique ID: glathesis:2015-6696
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 02 Oct 2015 08:50
• Last Modified: 08 Oct 2015 11:23
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/6696