Abstract
Four implications for youth development research and practice resulted from a qualitative study on psychosocial developmental experiences of late adolescents coping with parental cancer during late adolescence. The study employed a developmental systems framework and grounded theory methods. Results suggest three primary psychosocial developmental influences, including multilevel influences (individual, familial, and extrafamilial risk and protective factors), coping strategies to maintain control, and responses to uncertainty and anticipatory grief. The particular combination of risk and protective factors present in participants’ lives resulted in positive outcomes; resilience was the central unifying concept that characterized the primary psychosocial developmental outcomes of each participant. This finding illuminates the need to expand our focus in youth development research and practice to include positive developmental outcomes that can result from coping with life crises during adolescence.
Highlights
Death and dying are uncomfortable topics of discussion in our society, especially with regard to non-normative experiences such as the loss of a child or the loss of a sibling or parent during childhood or adolescence
The findings from this study are instructive for youth development researchers and practitioners who want to better understand adolescents within various contexts as they cope with illness, death, and other major life crises
For the second research question, the central unifying concept of resilience was the primary psychosocial developmental experience and impact that resulted from coping with parental cancer during late adolescence
Summary
Death and dying are uncomfortable topics of discussion in our society, especially with regard to non-normative experiences such as the loss of a child or the loss of a sibling or parent during childhood or adolescence. Research is needed that examines the positive developmental outcomes adolescents may experience stemming from a parent’s diagnosis, illness, or death due to cancer. This article draws implications for youth development from a qualitative study that inductively examined the psychosocial developmental experiences of adolescents coping with parental cancer. The findings from this study are instructive for youth development researchers and practitioners who want to better understand adolescents within various contexts as they cope with illness, death, and other major life crises. (2) a short summary of findings from the qualitative study (Ashurst, Hans, & Smith, in press); and (3) a discussion of implications and recommendations for the future of youth development research on adolescent development in the midst of coping with a major life crisis
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