Teenagers want to be told when a parent's death is near: A nationwide study of cancer-bereaved youths’ opinions and experiences

Figures & data

Table I. Characteristics of the study population.

	Bereaved children no. (%)
Confirmed eligible^1	851
Not reachable	55 (6)
Declined to participate	66 (8)
Agreed initially but did not return questionnaire	108 (13)
Providing information	622 (73)
Participant gender (role)
- Male (son)	309 (50)
- Female (daughter)	312 (50)
- Not stated^2	1
Year of birth (age at survey)
- 1988–1990 (18–20)	210 (34)
- 1986–1987 (21–22)	286 (46)
- 1984–1985 (24–25)	123 (20)
- Not stated	3
Current employment status (at ages 18–26, more than one alternative is possible)
- Studying at high school level	24/614 (4)
- Adult education at high school level	31/613 (5)
- Studying at university level	187/613 (31)
- Employed or self-employed	355/616 (58)
- Unemployed	91/616 (15)
- On parental leave	9/613 (1)
- On sick leave	7/613 (1)
Residential region
- Rural	54 (9)
- Small village or town	113 (18)
- Medium sized town	283 (46)
- City of more than 500 000	166 (27)
- Not stated	6
Gender of deceased parent (role)
- Male (father)	337 (54)
- Female (mother)	284 (46)
- Not stated	1

¹All those identified in registers who met inclusion criteria; ²The group “not stated” are not included in tests for significance or in calculations of proportions.

Table II. Number and percentage of responses to the question if the cancer-bereaved youth had talked with the dying parent and the other parent respectively about imminent death in the final week before the loss.

The first column shows the response-options to the question if the teenager had talked with the dying parent about imminent death in the final week before the loss; The first row shows the response-options to the question if the teenager had talked with the other parent; Grey areas highlights a diagonal corresponding to the number of cancer-bereaved youth reporting the same reason for communicating or not for both parents. For example, 80 cancer-bereaved youths responded that they had not realized that death was imminent when referring to both the dying and the other parent.

Figure 1. Cumulative percentages for length of time before the loss; (A) that the cancer-bereaved youths report to have known about different phases of the disease and dying trajectory; (B) when cancer-bereaved youth themselves and when cancer-bereaved youths believe that parents and physicians respectively, had realized that death was imminent (a matter of hours or days, not weeks). Missing values were not included in calculations. (1) A combination of “Not applicable, I never realized this” and “After the loss”, (2) A combination of “At time of loss” and “A couple of hours before the loss”, (3) As reported by cancer-bereaved youths. 55 individuals responded “I don’t know”, (4) Response-options shorter than “a couple of days” were not available, and (5) Length of time before the loss that cancer-bereaved youth’s believed that adults had been aware that death was imminent.