Adult's Lived Experience of Parental Cancer; a Phenomenological Study

Cancer imposes sudden and unwanted changes on the family. Sometimes young children are caring for these patients and this experience can cause psychological damage and change the course of life. The aim of this study was to know the children's lived experience of parental cancer.

This research was conducted with a qualitative approach and interpretive phenomenological method. A sample of 8 people was selected by homogeneous targeted method. IPA Smith four-step rotation method was used to analyze the data.

From the aggregation of 71 central themes in each semantic unit, 12 revelatory structures in the form of 4 general themes in the form of: (1) emotions from experience, (2) fundamental factors affecting experience, (3) supportive factors, (4) Factors related to the world of phenomena were obtained.

These children experienced destructive feelings and sometimes persistence at different stages according to environmental stimuli and the level of responsibility and had profound effects on the approach of these children in their possible exposure to cancer and non-repetition of this experience for their children. Since the level of family and social support had a significant impact on the acceptance of the event and its meaning, the community needs realistic information and the provision of coherent and specialized support services in the field of prevention and treatment of injuries caused by children caring for a parent with cancer.