title: Invented fairy tales in groups with onco-haematological children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The impact of an onco-haematological illness for children is a traumatic event that opens to pain, hospitalizations and interrupts the continuity of daily life. It is difficult for the child to make meaning, to share the pain or ask a question related to the illness because, often, the parents or doctors cannot find a way to communicate in a suitable way for the child who remains in a situation of 'unspoken', where, fear, anxiety and pain cannot find a space to express.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present research-intervention uses the methodology of invented fairy tales in groups with onco-haematological children, in the hospital, in order to explore the organization of the meanings at the base of the tales co-constructed by the participants underlying weaknesses and strengths of the invented fairy tales in groups intervention. The invented fairy tales in groups is used as a tool, such as a play, to express, share and support the experience of the illness of children. Forty-nine children participated to the invented fairy tales in groups in an onco-haematological hospital. Within a quali-quantitative framework we performed a thematic analysis of elementary context, cluster analysis, on the fairy tales considered as a unique narrative corpus of the thought of the group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis shows four thematic clusters: fantasy as search for a meaning, 29.71%, the group as a space for illusions, 27.90%, the illness as a family problem, 25.72%, anchoring reality, 16.67%. The results highlighted three main carriers of sense: the representation of illness/the relational world/the representation of the institution.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of invented-fairy-tales groups allowed the onco-haematological children to tell and share the experience of illness through a different way, which let them express symbolically their pain. The invented fairy tale in groups becomes a mediator of psychic processes which offer new solutions while improving interpersonal relationships/communication between the participants in group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Humanistic Studies, Federico II University, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Margherita
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Martino
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Recano
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Camera
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005192:Family Health; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D005495:Folklore; D006402:Hematologic Diseases / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008091:Literature; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000379:methods*; D036301:Qualitative Research
keywords: children's views; communication; fairy tale; paediatric onco-haematology; qualitative research methods