TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kühne, Franziska
A1  - Krattenmacher, Thomas
A1  - Bergelt, Corinna
A1  - Beierlein, Volker
A1  - Herzog, Wolfgang
A1  - V Klitzing, Kai
A1  - Weschenfelder-Stachwitz, Heike
A1  - Romer, Georg
A1  - Möller, Birgit
T1  - There is still so much ahead of us - Family functioning in families of palliative cancer patients
JF  - Families, systems & health : the journal of collaborative family healthcare
N2  - Adopting a systems approach, parental cancer has its impact on patients, spouses, and dependent children. The purpose of the current study was to examine family functioning dependent on parental disease stage and on family member perspective in families of cancer patients with adolescent children. The cross-sectional study was conducted within a German multisite research project of families before their first child-centered counseling encounter. The sample comprised individuals nested within N = 169 families. Analyses performed included analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and intraclass correlation. Open answers were analyzed following quantitative content analysis procedures. Between 15% and 36% of family members reported dysfunctional general functioning scores. Parents indicated more dysfunctional scores on the Family Assessment Device scale Roles, and adolescents more dysfunctional Communication scores. Regarding assessment of family functioning, there was higher agreement in families with parents in a palliative situation. For adolescents with parents in palliation, incidents because of the disease tend to become more dominant, and spending time with the family tends to become even more important. As our study pointed out, parental cancer, and especially parental palliative disease, is associated with both perceived critical and positive aspects in family functioning. Supporting families in these concerns as well as encouraging perceptions of positive aspects are important components of psycho-oncological interventions for families with dependent children.
KW  - Adolescent
KW  - Adult
KW  - Aged
KW  - Analysis of Variance
KW  - Child
KW  - Child of Impaired Parents/psychology
KW  - Cross-Sectional Studies
KW  - Family Relations
KW  - Female
KW  - Germany
KW  - Humans
KW  - Male
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Neoplasms
KW  - Palliative Care
KW  - Self Report
Y1  - 2013
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0032274
VL  - 31
SP  - 181
EP  - 193
ER  -