Psychological distress, role, and identity changes in mothers following a diagnosis of cancer: A systematic review

Objective To systematically review findings of the impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment on mothers' psychological well‐being, roles, and identity and to explore the psychosocial factors that contribute to mothers' psychological well‐being. Methods Six databases were searched for resear...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psycho-oncology (Chichester, England) Vol. 27; no. 12; pp. 2700 - 2708
Main Authors: Kuswanto, Carissa Nadia, Stafford, Lesley, Sharp, Jessica, Schofield, Penelope
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.12.2018
Subjects:
Adaptation, Psychological
Adolescent mothers
Age
Anxiety
Cancer
Caregivers - psychology
Change agents
Changes
depression
Efficacy
Evidence-based medicine
Fear & phobias
Female
Health psychology
Humans
Identity
Intrusiveness
maternal identity
Meaning
Medical diagnosis
Medical treatment
Mental depression
Metastasis
Mixed methods research
Mother-child relations
Mother-Child Relations - psychology
Mothers
Mothers - psychology
mother‐child relationship
Neoplasms - psychology
oncology
Parent-child relations
parenting
Parenting - psychology
Parents & parenting
Psychological distress
Psychosocial factors
Psychosocial support
Qualitative research
Quality of Life - psychology
Recovery
Recurrence
Rehabilitation
role
Roles
Stress, Psychological - psychology
Systematic review
Well being
Womens health
Young mothers
anxiety
role
mothers
mother-child relationship
cancer
depression
systematic review
oncology
parenting
maternal identity
ISSN:1057-9249, 1099-1611, 1099-1611
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Objective To systematically review findings of the impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment on mothers' psychological well‐being, roles, and identity and to explore the psychosocial factors that contribute to mothers' psychological well‐being. Methods Six databases were searched for research articles and theses exploring the association between the impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment on mothers' psychological well‐being, identity, and role, and the psychosocial factors contributing to mothers' psychological distress regardless of their cancer type and stage. The Mixed‐Method Appraisal Bias Tool was used to assess the selected studies' methodological quality. Results A total of 30 qualitative, quantitative, and mixed‐method studies were deemed eligible for inclusion. Most studies reported that mothers experienced significant psychological distress, changes to or loss of parenting efficacy, maternal identity, and role. Psychosocial factors that contributed to mothers' distress included mothers' young age, presence of metastases, lower parenting efficacy, fear of cancer recurrence, higher illness intrusiveness, and lack of appropriate support. Four main themes emerged from the qualitative studies: psychological impact of cancer on mothers, changes in maternal identity and role, relationship changes and concerns for their children, and meaning‐making in cancer experience. Conclusions Changes in mothers' psychological well‐being, role, and identity occurred across cancer diagnoses, treatment, and recovery trajectories. The evidence suggests that mothers may benefit from continued and tailored psychosocial support to cope with these challenges, even after treatment is completed. Further studies with improved methodological quality are needed to explore these issues in depth.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Evidence Based Healthcare-3
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:1057-9249
1099-1611
1099-1611
DOI:10.1002/pon.4904