How children experience a parent being chronically ill: a qualitative analysis of interviews with children of hemodialysis patients

Children's subjective experience of growing up with a somatically ill parent was studied by a qualitative analysis of individual interviews with children having a parent on hemodialysis. Transcripts of semi-structured interviews with 8 children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years and with one ill mother, whose father had had the same disease, were evaluated through structuring content analysis and psychoanalytical text interpretation. All individuals showed a strong sense of responsibility for their parents. In some cases this conflicted with their strives for autonomy. Almost all children tried to avoid conflicts with their parents. Younger children suffered from diffuse sadness, whereas children up from 11 years had concrete fears of medical complications or their parents' possible decease. In case parents spoke frankly about their illness, children felt relieved. Results suggest that growing-up with a chronically ill parent means a sustaining experience for a child, which requires enormous efforts of psychological adaptation. In preventive counselling concepts, parents should be strengthened in their competence as emotionally available attachment figures.