Family bonding as a result of the family talk intervention in pediatric oncology: Siblings’ experiences

Abstract

Background Childhood cancer affects the whole family. Illness‐related stressors increase the risk for poor family communication, affecting the family's well‐being. Siblings describe worry and poor illness‐related information. As there are few evaluated family interventions in pediatric oncology, this study aimed to pilot‐test a family‐centered intervention, the family talk intervention (FTI), in pediatric oncology. This paper examined the feasibility in terms of acceptability from the siblings’ perspectives. Methods This study derives from a pilot study of 26 families including 37 siblings recruited from one pediatric oncology center. Standard FTI comprises six meetings with the family, led by two interventionists, with the main goal to facilitate family communication on illness‐related topics (e.g., prognosis, the invisibility of healthy siblings). This paper focuses on interview and survey data from siblings after participation in FTI. The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier NCT03650530). Results The siblings, aged 6 to 24 years, stated that the interventionists made the meetings feel like a safe environment and that it was a relief for the siblings to talk. They reported that FTI helped the family talk openly about illness‐related topics, which they felt led to increased family understanding and improved relationships. The siblings described that FTI also helped them with their school situation. The majority of the siblings reported that FTI came at the right time and involved an appropriate number of meetings. Conclusion According to the siblings, the timing, content, and structure of FTI were appropriate. FTI showed benefits for both the siblings and each family as a whole.

“What about me?”: lived experiences of siblings living with a brother or sister with a life-threatening or life-limiting condition

“…Although most siblings in the study found it sufficient to talk with their parents, parents may need help understanding that siblings need to talk and could benefit from improved knowledge of how to do this. Some interventions may be helpful to improve parent—sibling communication, such as the family talk intervention (Ivéus et al, 2022 ; Lövgren et al, 2022 ) or SIBS (Haukeland et al, 2020 ). Our study shows that it may be difficult for siblings to talk with their parents when they are at the hospital.…”

Impact of family-centered care interventions on parental related outcomes among parents of children with cancer: A Systematic Review

“…The approaches used by the reviewed articles to empower parents were providing information and support for parents, and facilitating discussion and experience sharing with their own family members and other parents of children with cancer. It is also achieved through helping parents to give attention for their family relationship, care for the emotional and physical needs of their child with cancer, planning on how to communicate with the child, and breaking the silence together as a family and continuing the family dialogue (34,36,40,44). Similarly a systematic review by Park et al (50) identi ed empowerment as a key component of FCC intervention.…”

“…Families who received FCC has reported improved interaction with staff and each other, communicate better and felt understood by HCP (39,40,43). Parents who received person centered information has reported the opportunity they got to ask questions about their child's prognosis was the reason for being satis ed with care received (42).…”

Parenting a child with cancer and maintaining a healthy couple relationship: Findings from the Family Talk Intervention

“…In conjunction with the end of the FTI, the parents were invited to be interviewed by a researcher (the children's experiences are reported elsewhere 19,20 ). The primary focus of the interviews was the parents' experiences of taking part in the FTI, and parents were initially asked to freely describe their overall experience of the FTI.…”