Name
H07 - Differences in Communication About Illness Between Parents with Diabetes, Cancer, and Mental Disorders and Their Young Children.
Date & Time
Friday, October 17, 2025, 11:15 AM - 11:45 AM
Location Name
303
Description

"An oral presentation outlining a mixed-methods research project that examines how parents communicate their chronic or acute illness to their young children. The presentation will highlight the differences and similarities in communication patterns across various types of parental illnesses."

Speakers
Meirav Hen Prof., Dean of Social sciences and Humanities Faculty, Individual - Meirav Hen, Qiryqt Shmona, North
Co-Authors
Izabella Mirochnick
Miri Keren
Content Level
Intermediate
Tags
Patient-centered care or Patient perspectives, Pediatrics, Psychiatry
Session Type
Concurrent
SIG or Committee
Pediatrics (PEDs)
Objective 1
Recognize the importance of developmentally appropriate communication strategies. • Learners will understand the significance of adjusting communication styles to be developmentally appropriate for young children and the benefits of such an approach.
Objective 2
Explore the role of professional support in facilitating effective communication. • Learners will examine how professional support, such as therapy or counseling, can help parents navigate difficult conversations with their children about illness.
Objective 3
Appreciate the need for intervention programs to support parent-child communication.• Learners will gain an understanding of the need for targeted intervention programs to assist parents in effectively communicating about their illness with their children while considering the child’s emotional well-being
Content Reference 1

Hailey, C. E., Yopp, J. M., Deal, A. M., Mayer, D. K., Hanson, L. C., Grunfeld, G., ... & Park, E. M. (2018). Communication with children about a parent’s advanced cancer and measures of parental anxiety and depression: a cross-sectional mixed-methods study. Supportive Care in Cancer, 26(1), 287-295.‏

Content Reference 2

Eklund R, Kreicbergs U, Alvariza A, Lövgren M. Children’s Self-Reports About Illness-Related Information and Family Communication When a Parent Has a Life-Threatening Illness. Journal of Family Nursing. 26(2):102-110. doi:10.1177/1074840719898192

Content Reference 3

Fearnley, R. (2015). Writing the “penultimate chapter”: How children begin to make sense of parental terminal illness. Mortality, 20, 163–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2014.996209

Content Reference 4

Keeley, M. P. (2016). Family communication at the end of life. Journal of Family Communication, 16, 189–197. https://doi. org/10.1080/15267431.2016.1181070

Content Reference 5

Fearnley, R., & Boland, J. W. (2019). Parental Life-Limiting Illness: What Do We Tell the Children? Healthcare, 7(1), 47. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7010047