Understanding the Psychosocial Needs of Parents Who Have Lost a Child to Cancer

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Parents Who Have Lost a Child to Cancer

Treatments: Behavioral: Questionnaires/Interviews

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT00968500

09-107

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences and needs of parents who have lost a child to cancer. This will aid us in developing an intervention that may help parents cope with their loss.

Enrollment: 160 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Loss of a child to cancer between 6 months and 6 years ago
• Loss of a child between the ages of 6 months and 25 years
• Biological or adoptive parent or stepparent
• Parent must be age 18 or over
• In the judgment of investigators/consenting professionals able to comprehend English to complete study assessments
• To be eligible for the qualitative interview, participants more score of 19 or less (< 19)or 34 or greater (> 34) on the PG-13 to qualify

Exclusion criteria

• Significant psychiatric disturbance sufficient, in the investigator's judgment, to preclude completion of the assessment measures, interview or informed consent.

Trial design

160 participants in 1 patient group

Parents Who Have Lost a Child to Cancer

Description:

The overall goal of the proposed cross-sectional study is to obtain information necessary to the development of an effective Meaning-Centered Grief Intervention for parents who lost a child to cancer. In order to identify a subset of parents with whom we will conduct qualitative interviews with a subset of participants to address Aims 1 and 2, we will first screen participants to determine their levels of Prolonged Grief Disorder symptoms using a quantitative assessment (PG-13). The screening measure (PG-13) and the additional questionnaires included in the quantitative battery of measures will be analyzed to achieve Aim 3.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Questionnaires/Interviews