ArticlePediatrics2026
Bereaved Parents' Narratives of Their Child Who Died of Cancer: A Qualitative Study.
Article in Pediatrics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesHumans use storytelling to create meaning from suffering, including after the death of a child. The elicitation of and response to stories remains underused in medicine, and in particular, within parental bereavement. Thus, we sought to explore how bereaved parents choose to share the story of their child.
methodsThis is a secondary analysis of a dual site, survey-based study of parents' experiences following their child's death from cancer 6 to 24 months earlier. Our qualitative inquiry focuses on inductive, iterative analysis of free-text responses to the following question: "If you would be willing to share, please tell us about your child. What would you like us to know about him/her?"
resultsA total of 128 parents completed the survey; 101 parents (79%) representing 81 children shared stories about their child. Responses took the form of narratives that varied in terms of structure (eg, verb tense, subject, narrative arc) and content (eg, character development, narration/voice). Parents highlighted their child's appearance, traits, and passions. Most did not detail cancer history or death. Parent narratives progressed through themes of medicalization, humanization, and supernaturalization in the "character development" of their child, who was frequently characterized as "otherworldly."
conclusionsBereaved parents whose child died of cancer have a desire to tell their child's story. When given the opportunity, nearly 80% of parents in this study chose to share. Thematic progression may be a framework for narrative repair. Parental narratives of their deceased child provide new insights into their bereavement experience and may help to develop novel supportive interventions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.