Structural Features of a Family with a Child, Suffering from a Cancer and Lived Through It

PEREVOZYUK NATALIA NIKOLAEVNA STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF A FAMILY WITH A CHILD, SUFFERING FROM A CANCER AND LIVED THROUGH IT The research is devoted to the study of the structural features of the organiza-tion of the family system, having a child -a cancer patient at different stages of his illness. The study was conducted on the Russian families. (N = 112) the question-naire «The scale of adaptation and family cohesion» (FACES- III) was used. The experimental group consisted of a group of families at the stage of treatment of cancer N = 32) and a group of families at the stage of remission from different re-gions of Russia (N = 32) The results were compared with the control group -with families with conditionally healthy children (N = 48) As a result, the research pro-vided evidence that a family suffering from cancer at the stage of treatment is char-acterized by extremes emotional between family members (the extremely high lev-el of emotional intimacy or contrary, disengaged). It was found that the structural organization of families with a child suffering from cancer (both at the stage of treatment of the disease and at the stage of remission) is characterized by a high level of chaotic (the absence of stable rules in a family, and the absense of con-sistent leadership). At the same time, with an increase of remission period the pro-portion of families with the chaotic structural organization is not reduced. In addi-tion, the aspiration to the chaotic and emotionally enmeshed structural organization persists in the representation of an ideal family as in the group at the stage of treat-ment of the disease, and in the group at the stage of remission. The results obtained in this research can be used to improve the practice of psychological assistance to families with children - cancer patients. Keywords: childhood cancer, family functioning, family system, Olson’s Circum-plex Model, FACES -III