Kastrinos Amanda, Salafia Caroline, Gebert Rebecca R, Mroz Emily L, Fisher Carla L, Applebaum Allison J
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.
Psychooncology. 2025 May;34(5):e70161. doi: 10.1002/pon.70161.
Emerging and young adult caregivers (EYACs) who provide care to a parent with advanced cancer are underrepresented in caregiving scholarship, and yet, are not uncommon. Little is known about the psychosocial impacts of caring for a parent at this age or how EYACs manage their uncertainty regarding their own, potentially elevated, future cancer risk.
To employ Uncertainty Management Theory (UMT) to examine how bereaved EYACs of a parent who died of advanced cancer appraise and manage their uncertainty regarding their personal cancer risk.
We conducted a secondary analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with EYACs (age 18-35) who cared for a parent who died of advanced cancer (n = 33) < 5 years prior. The interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed.
Some EYACs described appraising their cancer risk uncertainty as an opportunity and were motivated to reduce their risks through behavior choices. Others appraised it as a danger and experienced anxiety, paranoia, and fatalism about their risk. Others described their parents' cancer as "just bad luck," believing it to be a random anomaly that could not impact their cancer risk and reported no changes in their appraisal of their cancer risk uncertainty.
EYACs' opportunity and danger appraisals align with studies of high hereditary risk populations but reporting no change in cancer risk uncertainty is unique. The long-term health implications of appraising their parent's cancer as a random occurrence, disconnected from their personal risk, remain unknown. Future research should seek to help both bereaved and active EYACs better understand their cancer risk and manage their uncertainty.
为患晚期癌症的父母提供照料的新兴成年和青年照料者（EYACs）在照料领域的学术研究中未得到充分体现，但这类情况并不罕见。对于这个年龄段照料父母所产生的心理社会影响，以及EYACs如何应对自身未来患癌风险可能增加的不确定性，我们了解甚少。
运用不确定性管理理论（UMT）来研究因父母死于晚期癌症而失去亲人的EYACs如何评估和应对其个人患癌风险的不确定性。
我们对与在不到5年前照料过死于晚期癌症的父母的EYACs（年龄在18 - 35岁之间，n = 33）进行的深入、半结构化访谈进行了二次分析。对访谈内容进行了转录和主题分析。
一些EYACs将对自身癌症风险的不确定性评估为一个机会，并通过行为选择来降低风险。另一些人则将其评估为一种危险，并对自身风险感到焦虑、偏执和宿命论。还有一些人将父母的癌症描述为“只是运气不好”，认为这是一个随机异常情况，不会影响他们的癌症风险，并表示对自身癌症风险不确定性的评估没有变化。
EYACs的机会和危险评估与对高遗传风险人群的研究结果一致，但报告癌症风险不确定性没有变化这一点是独特的。将父母的癌症视为与个人风险无关的随机事件对长期健康的影响尚不清楚。未来的研究应致力于帮助失去亲人的和仍在照料的EYACs更好地了解他们的癌症风险并应对其不确定性。
