Psychosocial transitions and the family's work in adjusting to cancer.
The family, not just the patient, experiences and attempts to understand the meaning of cancer. The family's adjustment to cancer involves moving through psychosocial transitions in ways that facilitate the meaning of the experience; that maintain the family's ongoing functions; that respond to the illness-related demands; that maintain the self-esteem of the family members; and that foster new arrangements and relationships in the family that are responsive to the contingencies of the illness.
Community Health Care Systems, School of Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
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Lewis
D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D011610:Psychosocial Deprivation; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology*