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“God is going to help me get through this”: spirituality perspectives from Hispanic adolescent and young adult cancer survivors

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Abstract

Purpose

Describe spirituality’s role in a sample of Hispanic adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors.

Methods

This phenomenology-informed convergent parallel mixed-methods study aimed to explore participants’ lived experiences with hope during cancer treatments and cancer survivorship. A purposive sample of Hispanic AYAs who completed cancer treatments 2–5 years ago were virtually recruited for participation. Participants completed virtual semi-structured interviews about their experiences with hope during cancer treatments and cancer survivorship and prepared narratives about their experiences. Thematic analyses were iteratively performed across the data set to identify final themes.

Results

Ten Hispanic AYA cancer survivors (mean age 30.2, SD = 4.5) years participated in this pilot study. Seven participants (70%) were female, and three participants (30%) were male. Six participants (60%) experienced non-hematologic malignancies, and four participants (40%) experienced hematologic malignancies. Eight (80%) participants’ language preference was Spanish, while two (20%) participants’ language preference was English. The theme spirituality and subthemes living by faith, god as a resource, and spiritual gratitude were identified as concepts participants linked to their conceptualization of hope during cancer treatment and survivorship.

Conclusions

Hope and spirituality may be conceptually linked to coping behaviors among Hispanic AYA cancer survivors. Hope through faith may be a learned spiritual value in Hispanic AYAs and might play a role in their spiritual and cognitive development. Further research is needed to explore the potentially protective value of hope and spirituality for the Hispanic AYA population.

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Data availability

Deidentified qualitative data can be shared with interested parties who wish to review the data or conduct further analyses. Please contact the corresponding author with inquiries.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Ms. Sandra Garcia-Hernandez for her assistance with this study. The authors want to acknowledge and thank the participants for graciously sharing their stories.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nursing Research, Mayo Clinic Arizona, 5777 E Mayo Boulevard, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    C. Robert Bennett

  2. School of Nursing, Boise State University, Norco Building, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID, USA

    Katherine Doyon

  3. Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research Core (QM2), ACCORDS (Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science), Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine | Children’s Hospital Colorado, Mailstop F443, 1890 North Revere Court, Aurora, CO, USA

    Juliana G. Barnard

  4. Division of Nursing Research, Mayo Clinic Florida, 4500 San Pablo Rd, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Cindy Tofthagen

  5. Department of Transforming Chaplaincy, Rush University, 1653 W Congress Pkwy #12, Chicago, IL, USA

    Paul Galchutt

  6. College of Nursing, University of Colorado, Education 2 North, Room 4240 Mail Stop C288-18, 13120 E. 19th Avenue, Aurora, CO, USA

    Heather L. Coats

  7. Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing, Saint Louis University, 3525 Caroline Mall, Office #526, Saint Louis, MO, USA

    Verna L. Hendricks-Ferguson

Authors
  1. C. Robert Bennett
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  7. Verna L. Hendricks-Ferguson
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by CRB and SGH. The first draft of the manuscript was written by CRB. KD, JGB, CT, PG, HLC, and VHF commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Robert Bennett.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Protocol COMIRB# 21–4823 for this study was determined on 4/28/2022 to be low risk and exempt from IRB review.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent for publication

Participants signed informed consent regarding publishing their data.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Bennett, C.R., Doyon, K., Barnard, J.G. et al. “God is going to help me get through this”: spirituality perspectives from Hispanic adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. Support Care Cancer 32, 348 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-024-08550-y

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