Closeness in Crisis: a Proposal for Identifying Resilience in Couples Who Face the Crisis of Cancer in Their Child

The experience of childhood cancer challenges normative views of development for young families. At the same time it reveals unique family resiliencies that arise from creative and innovative ways of responding to the impacts of the disease. The hypothesis underlying the research proposal presented in this book holds that a couple¿s relational response to the threat of cancer in their child may lead to greater closeness. This closeness, in turn, allows couples to mount a powerful resistance to the tyranny of cancer and its concomitant demands (chemotherapy, hospitalization, frequent invasive procedures, vigilant monitoring of blood counts and side effects) on the family. The approach challenges deficit-models of research and intervention which focus on family pathology by proposing an interview method designed to elicit specific resiliency factors in the couple, focusing on their collective response to cancer. The proposed framework not only provides a template for future research, but presents a novel way for counsellors, social workers and other professionals to help couples who face the crisis of a cancer diagnosis in their child.