Reexploring Children’s Illness Uncertainty and Management Experiences with Female Japanese Cancer Survivors

The purpose of our study was to examine what illness uncertainties (IU) children experience now and how they manage it, with the aim to use the findings to construct long-term, comprehensive developmental care for children with illness. We conducted interviews with six Japanese adolescent cancer survivors, all recruited from the same hospital in Tokyo, Japan. Using directed content analysis, we first present new aspects of children’s IU, the first one being the IU of hospitalization itself, which may be frequently experienced by younger children. We also present the necessity to distinguish and examine IU with and without answers, and discuss the uncertainty of “why me?” Also, in terms of IU management, we present the informative value “role models” have in terms of reducing IU, and depict how uncertainty acceptance might be a new goal a patient aims to achieve.