Children as Next of Kin: A Scoping Review of Support Interventions for Children Who have a Parent with a Serious Physical Illness
- Författare
- Järkestig Berggren Ulrika, Hanson Elizabeth
- Titel
- Children as Next of Kin: A Scoping Review of Support Interventions for Children Who have a Parent with a Serious Physical Illness
- Utgivningsår
- 2016
- Tidskrift
- Child care in practice
- Volym
- 22
- Häfte
- 3
- Sidor
- 277-295
- Url
- DOI: 10.1080/13575279.2015.1102125
- Sammanfattning
Young children and adolescents who have a parent with a serious physical illness require information and support to cope with their everyday lives. The purpose of this scoping review was to summarise and disseminate the research findings of interventions that support children in families with a serious physically ill parent. The review also aimed to identify research gaps in the existing literature. Following a comprehensive search, only nine support interventions from 12 studies were identified, indicating that a dearth of intervention research has been conducted in the area. Although positive results were reported from all interventions at some stage, many of the studies were small pilot studies that did not show robust proof of the effectiveness of the interventions. However, the scoping review revealed that the main aim of most interventions is to enhance family functioning for all afflicted families by helping parents to communicate with their children. Further, some interventions offer a comprehensive support for identified “at risk” families. Few interventions examined the improvement within the everyday lives of families facing a serious physical illness other than cancer or HIV. The measures of effectiveness for children were limited to internal psychological symptoms of stress and depression, behavioural problems and issues regarding communication within the family. Few studies evaluated external measures; for example, effects on children's care burden, improved support from social network or school achievements. Implications for practitioners include gaining inspiration from the programmes to enhance communication between parents and children and also, wherever possible, to ask children themselves to evaluate the effectiveness of the support offered to them.