Background: Despite an awareness that parents experience distress and heightened uncertainty at the end of their adolescent’s treatment for cancer, little is known about the specific challenges and concerns parents hold for their adolescent survivors or how they manage these challenges. This study described challenges parents experience in the first year after their adolescent’s cancer treatment and what parents did to manage those challenges. Method: Single occasion semistructured interviews were conducted with parents and were transcribed verbatim. Data were coded using inductive content analysis methods adapted from grounded theory. Results: Participants were 30 parents of adolescent survivors (13-18 years) who were in the first year following treatment completion. The core construct, “Walking on Eggshells,” explained the processes and experiences parents faced once treatment was complete. Two additional domains captured how parents managed posttreatment challenges (“Doing What We Can”) and the ways parents helped their adolescents adjust (“Balancing”). Conclusion: Study results suggest that services and materials are needed to help parents know common struggles that arise after treatment and ways to mitigate the severity of distress parents experience.

中文翻译：

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如履薄冰：父母在青少年完成癌症治疗后的第一年


背景：尽管人们意识到父母在青少年癌症治疗结束时会经历痛苦和高度的不确定性，但人们对父母对青少年幸存者所面临的具体挑战和担忧以及他们如何应对这些挑战知之甚少。这项研究描述了父母在青少年接受癌症治疗后第一年遇到的挑战以及父母为应对这些挑战所做的事情。方法：对家长进行单次半结构化访谈并逐字记录。使用根据扎根理论改编的归纳内容分析方法对数据进行编码。结果：参与者是 30 名青少年幸存者（13-18 岁）的父母，他们处于治疗完成后的第一年。核心概念“如履薄冰”解释了治疗完成后父母所面临的过程和经历。另外两个领域涵盖了父母如何应对治疗后的挑战（“尽我们所能”）以及父母帮助青少年调整的方式（“平衡”）。结论：研究结果表明，需要提供服务和材料来帮助父母了解治疗后出现的常见困难以及减轻父母经历的痛苦严重程度的方法。