Children's strategies to handle cancer: a video ethnography of imaginal coping

Rindstedt, Camilla

doi:10.1111/cch.12064

Cited by 22 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Crucially, we cannot fully understand the impact and meaning of health and illness in children's lives without bringing in children's experiences, understandings, competence and agency in dealing with these issues (Mayall , ). Examples that show this is possible include studies that have accessed the views of children over a range of areas such as in relation to doctor–patient consultations (Rindstedt ), the design of children's health services and spaces (Birch et al . ) and treatment preferences and their impact (Coad ).…”

Section: Themes Of This Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting a sociology of childhood perspective with the study of child health, illness and wellbeing: introduction

Brady

Lowe

Lauritzen

2015

Sociology Health & Illness

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The health and wellbeing of children and young people has been studied from a range of different perspectives in social science and the health sciences as a whole. Much of the research to date has been for or on children and has focused on promoting health, detecting illness and its causes or investigating the social determinants of health. While these make vital contributions to making the world better for children and young people, we would argue there is also a need for research with children, research from a child perspective, to fully understand the meaning and impact of health and illness in children's lives. Furthermore, there is a need to explore the social and cultural contexts of child health that frame the lived experiences of children and their parents. More specifically, there is a need to interrogate the explicit as well as the implicit perceptions of childhood and the child in health policy, perceptions that are reproduced in various health and social practices. The purpose of this issue is to contribute to a further understanding of these issues by bridging developments in the sociology of childhood and the sociology of health and illness.In the last decades we have seen a growing interest across disciplines in research on children's own experiences and understandings of health and illness. It can be argued that this increasing interest has been stimulated by developments in the sociology of childhood. Through the 1990s a body of work emerged which criticised dominant notions of child development where children were largely depicted as immature and passive objects of socialisation (Burman 1994, Halldén 1991, James and Prout 1997, Qvortrup 1994.Scholars of the sociology of childhood problematised these notions of the child by theorising the ways in which childhood is socially constructed and understandings of the child vary across different sociocultural contexts. Importantly, the focus was shifted from seeing children as immature becomings on their way to adulthood to a focus on children as beings and as competent actors with a social agency of their own, not only influenced by but also influencing their social worlds (James et al. 1998, James and Prout 1997, Qvortrup 1994. Moreover, by understanding children as a specific social group, attention could be directed at children's rights and the structures that enabled and restricted control over their lives (Alanen and Mayall 2001).Since these early years, the theoretical positions and central concepts in the sociology of childhood (and its place in sociology) have been, and are, debated (see, for example, Alanen 2014, James 2010, Moran-Ellis 2010). At the same time, empirical studies of children and childhoods have been burgeoning in sociology and in other disciplines. Although a full account of these developments and disciplinary differences falls outside the scope of this issue, here we want to draw attention to some of the central concepts and theoretical points of departure in this tradition that we find of particular interest for studies of c...

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Section: Themes Of This Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting a sociology of childhood perspective with the study of child health, illness and wellbeing: introduction

Brady

Lowe

Lauritzen

2015

Sociology Health & Illness

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“…In Bury's (1991) seminal article, Bury described how those with chronic illnesses negotiate reality subsequent to their diagnosis to "manage, mitigate, or adapt to" the impact on their lives; in other words, to "cope"; and defined "what people do" in order to cope, as "coping strategies" [4] (pp.452-461). Recent conceptualizations of coping [5][6][7] and definitions of coping strategies vary widely [5], so this article takes a broader definition of "coping strategies" as any "cognitive or behavioural techniques to cope with the physical and psychological challenges" [8] (p.36) being experienced. Past studies have found that seeing the images produced by MRI -Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs) -can provide reassurance [9][10][11], and hope for patients [9,12] and their parents [9], although there is scant research on the role MRIs might play in coping.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs) in coping for patients with brain tumours and their parents: a qualitative study

et al. 2021

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Background When children and young people (CYP) are diagnosed with a brain tumour, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is key to the clinical management of this condition. This can produce hundreds, and often thousands, of Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs). Methods Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 14 families (15 parents and 8 patients), and analysed using Grounded Theory. Analysis was supported by the Framework Method. Results Although the focus of the research was whether paediatric patients and their families find viewing MRIs beneficial, all patients and parents discussed difficult times during the illness and using various strategies to cope. This article explores the identified coping strategies that involved MRIs, and the role that MRIs can play in coping. Coping strategies were classified under the aim of the strategy when used: ‘Normalising’; ‘Maintaining hope and a sense of the future’; ‘Dealing with an uncertain future’; and ‘Seeking Support’. Conclusions Coping and finding ways to cope are clearly used by patients and their families and are something that they wish to discuss, as they were raised in conversations that were not necessarily about coping. This suggests clinicians should always allow time and space (in appointments, consultations, or impromptu conversations on the ward) for patient families to discuss ways of coping. MRIs were found to be used in various ways: to maintain or adapt normal; maintain hope and a sense of the future; deal with an uncertain future; and seek support from others. Clinicians should recognise the potential for MRIs to aid coping and if appropriate, suggest that families take copies of scans (MRIs) home. Professional coaches or counsellors may also find MRIs beneficial as a way to remind families that the child is in a more stable or ‘better’ place than they have been previously.

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“…The children were invited to participate in the conversations with the staff, and they were not viewed as the marginal participants that have been discussed in previous research with children with cancer (Bluebond‐Langner, ; Clemente, ). Furthermore, the children were made to feel special (Rindstedt, , , ). The parents also take part in the conversations and offer support to their children.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating Illness in Medical Interactions: Narrative Styles of two Children with Leukaemia

Rindstedt

2015

Children & Society

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The illness narratives presented in this paper were video‐recorded as part of child patient–staff interaction, during more than a year of ethnographic fieldwork at a paediatric oncology centre. The two children tended to ‘do illness’ differently, producing different types of narrative accounts. One of them presented accounts that invoked ‘fight’ metaphors, whereas the other one invoked patient identities. Also, the medical staff deployed different interactional strategies with different children in response to their narrative constructions of themselves and their leukaemia.

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Children's strategies to handle cancer: a video ethnography of imaginal coping

Cited by 22 publications

References 18 publications

Connecting a sociology of childhood perspective with the study of child health, illness and wellbeing: introduction

Connecting a sociology of childhood perspective with the study of child health, illness and wellbeing: introduction

The role of Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs) in coping for patients with brain tumours and their parents: a qualitative study

Negotiating Illness in Medical Interactions: Narrative Styles of two Children with Leukaemia

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