Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Oct;37(9):1303-1325.
doi: 10.1177/02692163231186173. Epub 2023 Jul 17.

The spiritual dimension of parenting a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition: A mixed-methods systematic review

Marijanne Engel  1 , Marije A Brouwer  1 , Nienke Jansen  2 , Carlo Leget  3 , Saskia Ccm Teunissen  1 , Marijke C Kars  1
Affiliations

The spiritual dimension of parenting a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition: A mixed-methods systematic review

Marijanne Engel et al. Palliat Med. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Spirituality refers to the dynamic dimension of human life that relates to the way that persons experience meaning, purpose, and transcendence. The complex task of parenting a child with a life-limiting condition may raise existential questions, which are easily overlooked by healthcare professionals.

Aim: We explored how the spiritual dimension becomes manifest in parents of children in pediatric palliative care.

Design: A mixed-methods systematic review was conducted, registered in Prospero (2021 CRD42021285318).

Data sources: PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, PsycInfo, and Cochrane were searched for articles published between January 1, 2015 and January 1, 2023. We included original empirical studies that reported on spirituality of parents of seriously ill children, from parents' perspectives.

Results: Sixty-three studies were included: 22 North-American, 19 Asian, 13 European, 9 other. Studies varied in defining spirituality. We identified five different aspects of spirituality: religion, hope, parental identity, personal development, and feeling connected with others. All aspects could function as source of spirituality or cause of spiritual concern. Sources of spirituality helped parents to give meaning to their experiences and made them feel supported. However, parents also reported struggling with spiritual concerns. Several parents highlighted their need for professional support.

Conclusions: Although studies vary in defining spirituality, reports on spirituality focus on how parents connect to their faith, others, and themselves as parents. Healthcare professionals can support parents by paying attention to the spiritual process parents are going through. More research is needed into how healthcare professionals can support parents of seriously ill children in this process.

Keywords: Palliative care; parents; pediatrics; spirituality; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow diagram search strategy (2021-10-13 and updated search to 2023-01-01).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. McClain CS, Rosenfeld B, Breitbart W. Effect of spiritual well-being on end-of-life despair in terminally-ill cancer patients. J Lancet 2003; 361(9369): 1603–1607. - PubMed
    1. Delgado-Guay MO. Spirituality and religiosity in supportive and palliative care. Curr Opin Support Palliat Care 2014; 8(3): 308–313. - PubMed
    1. Kars MC, Grypdonck MH, van Delden JJ. Being a parent of a child with cancer throughout the end-of-life course. Oncol Nurs Forum 2011; 38(4): E260–E271. - PubMed
    1. Melin-Johansson C, Axelsson I, Jonsson Grundberg M, et al.. When a child dies: Parents’ experiences of palliative care-an integrative literature review. J Pediatr Nurs 2014; 29(6): 660–669. - PubMed
    1. Haufe M, Leget C, Potma M, et al.. How can existential or spiritual strengths be fostered in palliative care? An interpretative synthesis of recent literature. BMJ Support Palliat Care 2020; 1-11 - PMC - PubMed

Publication types