Experience of chronic sorrow in mothers of children with cancer: A phenomenological study Lida Nikfarid, RN a , Maryam Rassouli, PhD a, * , Leili Borimnejad, PhD b , Hamid Alavimajd, PhD a a Department of Pediatric Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR, Iran b Department of Pediatric Nursing, Facultyof Nursing and Midwifery, Iran University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yasemi Street, Vanak Square, Tehran, Iran article info Article history: Received 13 October 2015 Received in revised form 25 January 2017 Accepted 16 February 2017 Keywords: Cancer Children Mothers Iran Phenomenology abstract Purpose: Chronic sorrow is a multidimensional concept experienced by mothers of children suffering with chronic conditions, e.g. cancer. Little is known about the concept of chronic sorrow and related issues/experiences among mothers of children with cancer living in Iran. This study aimed to explore the concept of chronic sorrow, based on the lived experiences of chronic sorrow experienced in a group of Iranian mothers of children with cancer. Methods: In this hermeneutic phenomenological study, 8 mothers of children with cancer participated in semi structured, in-depth interviews about their experiences of chronic sorrow. Interviews continued until data saturation was reached. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, analyzed, and interpreted using the seven steps of the Dickelman et al.'s phenomenological approach. Results: The three main themes that emerged from mothers' experiences of chronic sorrow related to their child's cancer were “climbing up shaky rocks,”“religious fear and hope,” and “continuous role changing.” Each of these themes consisted of several subthemes. Besides the possibility of growth and coping with the chronic condition of a child which has been seen in other studies on chronic sorrow experiences, religious issues were more profound than what has reported in Western studies. Also the ambiguous prognosis and uncertain process of the cancer in children had made the experience of chronic sorrow more unique. Conclusion: The results of this study show that the experiences of mothers of children with cancer in Iran are not specific to them, but are better comprehended in their traditional socio-cultural context. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The term chronic sorrow was introduced by Olshanski in 1962 to define recurrent and cyclical sorrow in mothers with mentally retarded children (Hobdell et al., 2007). Previous studies have shown that mothers of children with mental and physical disabil- ities, and chronic and serious diseases experience chronic sorrow (Eakes et al., 1998; Hobdell et al., 2007; Kendall, 2005; Masterson, 2010; Northington, 2000). Cancer is one of the most challenging diseases for children and their families, and loss is an emotional outcome of the disease in all families of children with this disease (Marsac et al., 2013). The very nature of cancer makes it different from other chronic diseases in children, probably due to its more ambiguous prognosis (Wenzel et al., 2011). Although chronic sorrow has been reported in adults affected by cancer (Eakes, 1993) there is limited evidence demon- strating just how chronic sorrow affects families of children with cancer. It is essential that the members of the healthcare team be very familiar with the various dimensions of chronic sorrow for them to be able to help support the families facing the chronic condition of their child. Given that chronic sorrow is deep and multi-dimensional, the researchers used the interpretative phenomenological method in this study; this method was chosen in order to use their own long-term experiences achieved in nursing practices for children with cancer and for their families for the interpretation and explication of the complicated concept of chronic sorrow. In this respect, this study was conducted to examine the lived experiences of chronic sorrow among mothers of * Corresponding author. E-mail address: rassouli.m@gmail.com (M. Rassouli). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect European Journal of Oncology Nursing journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ejon http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2017.02.003 1462-3889/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. European Journal of Oncology Nursing 28 (2017) 98e106