A systematic narrative review of the studies on structured child-centred interventions for families with a parent with cancer

Abstract

Objective: To perform a systematic narrative review of the current state of published articles on the structured interventions targeted at children with a parent suffering from cancer.

Methods: The study was based on a narrative synthesis approach. Eleven structured child-centred intervention studies were systematically searched through PubMed, PsycINFO and MEDLINE. The interventions were grouped into two main categories: 'structured family interventions' and 'structured peer group interventions'. Special attention was focused on the preventive purpose of the interventions.

Results: The participants (children, parents and health professionals) reported several positive impacts of interventions on children's and parents' psychosocial well-being, although no improvement or changes were also observed. The effect of interventions on the children was evaluated by structured methods only in five studies.

Conclusions: This review showed the lack of valid psychosocial preventive intervention methods focusing on children with parental cancer and highlighted the need of intervention research with controlled study designs and long follow-up periods. However, an intervention method should be easy to train and applicable to the clinical practice of healthcare professionals. By refining the practice-based experiences with scientific research evidence it is possible to move to the next level in providing psychosocial support and prevention for children living in families with parental cancer.