Interventions for Children of Parents With Cancer From the Time of Cancer Diagnosis Through Bereavement: Two Systematic Reviews.

Abstract

Objective: While there has been increasing attention on caring for children following a parent's cancer diagnosis or death, few studies include scalable evidence-based interventions to facilitate adjustment. The aim of this review was to summarize recent empirical studies that included interventions for minor children (0-18 years) with clear pre- and post-assessments of the child's psychological functioning from the time a parent is diagnosed with cancer through bereavement.

Methods: Two separate systematic reviews were conducted for interventions during either a parent's illness or bereavement. We searched Ovid Medline, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Sociological Abstracts, and Social Services Abstracts for articles published in 2015 and beyond.

Results: For the first review, 113 articles were reviewed at the full-text level. Of those, 11 met study inclusion criteria. All were published between 2015-2023 and the sample size ranged from 16-176, including 534 children in total, aged 4-18 years. Thirteen validated measures were used. For the second review, 49 articles were reviewed at the full text level, and only one met criteria. This study, published in 2023, included 20 children aged 7-12 years. Two validated measures were used. Quality assessment indicated a generally low risk of bias and high methodological quality for both reviews.

Conclusions: Evidence-based interventions for minor children whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer or who are bereaved during childhood are limited. To standardize and move the field forward, we propose a model to guide the development of interventions for children whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer through bereavement.