Keep Calm and Cope On: How Families Cope with Childhood Cancer

The purpose of the current study was to examine how childhood cancer affects the family system after a period of time (at least one year) has passed. A questionnaire was developed by the author and given to families that were recruited through a snowball sampling procedure. The final sample consisted of 17 families in various stages of coping after a child in the family was diagnosed with cancer. Findings showed that overall, the women in the study tended to cope in more positive ways than men, that siblings often reported to their parents that they felt excluded and can experience emotional and behavioral issues long after the cancer diagnosis, and that family roles are threatened when families are dealing with cancer