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Abstract

According to Lazarus and Folkman, coping responses to stressful situations are based upon one's appraisal of the meaning and implications of the stressor. This paper describes the changing appraisals of the significance of childhood leukemia, as described by family members who have lived with it for at least 5 years. Glaser and Strauss' grounded theory technique was used to analyze the transcripts from a series of intensive, semistructured interviews of the well siblings (n=10) and parents (n=7) of four long-term survivors of acute lymphocytic leukemia. The reappraisal process was found to involve a series of definite stages for both the well siblings and the parents, although there were some notable differences between the timing and content of the stages described by the two groups. Several factors affecting sibling understanding contributed toward these differences, as well as determining the variations noted among the well siblings' “reappraisal timelines.” Various theoretical and practical implications of these findings are presented