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Discursive constructions of youth cancer: findings from creative methods research with healthy young people

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Abstract

Purpose

As part of work to understand the experiences of young people who had cancer, we were keen to examine the perspectives of peers who share their social worlds. Our study aimed to examine how cancer in young people, young people with cancer and young cancer survivors are represented through language, metaphor and performance.

Methods

We generated data using creative activities and focus group discussions with three high school drama classes and used Foucauldian discourse analysis to identify the discursive constructions of youth cancer.

Results

Our analysis identified two prevailing discursive constructions: youth cancer as an inevitable decline towards death and as overwhelming personhood by reducing the young person with cancer to ‘cancer victim’.

Conclusions

If we are to understand life after cancer treatment and how to support young people who have been treated for cancer, we need a sophisticated understanding of the social contexts they return to. Discourses shape the way young people talk and think about youth cancer; cancer as an inevitable decline towards death and as overwhelming personhood is a key discursive construction that young people draw on when a friend discloses cancer.

Implications for Cancer Survivors

The way cancer is constructed shapes how friends react to and relate to a young person with cancer. These constructions are likely to shape challenging social dynamics, such as bullying, that many young cancer survivors experience. Awareness of these discursive constructions can better equip young cancer survivors, their family and health professionals negotiate life after cancer.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the young people who participated and the school principal and teacher for facilitating this study. This research was supported under the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects funding scheme (Project Number LP0883632), with CanTeen as the Linkage partner. We acknowledge the members of the Growing Up with Cancer project: Ian Kerridge, Christopher F.C. Jordens, Julie Mooney-Somers and Peter Lewis (University of Sydney); Kris Smith (University of Newcastle); David Bennett (The Children’s Hospital at Westmead); Pandora Patterson and Fiona E.J. McDonald (CanTeen); and Susan Cornish.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Medical Foundation Building, Camperdown, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Julie Mooney-Somers, Peter Lewis & Ian Kerridge

  2. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Hawkesbury Campus Building G.10, Richmond, NSW, 2753, Australia

    Peter Lewis

Authors
  1. Julie Mooney-Somers
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  2. Peter Lewis
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  3. Ian Kerridge
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julie Mooney-Somers.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Mooney-Somers, J., Lewis, P. & Kerridge, I. Discursive constructions of youth cancer: findings from creative methods research with healthy young people. J Cancer Surviv 10, 427–436 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-015-0488-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-015-0488-1

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