Encounters with offspring help terminally ill adult patients cope with death anxiety

Illness Experiences of Advanced Cancer Patients in Taiwan

The illness experiences of advanced cancer patients are discussed in a Taiwanese cultural context, using an interpretive ethnographic approach (interviews and participant observations) emphasizing holism and symbolic interactionism. A total of 23 advanced cancer patients from different counties in Taiwan were recruited over a 42-month period. The researcher followed their progress as they approached death to better understand their terminal cancer experiences. An interpretive analysis guided by Agar's hermeneutic cycle approach revealed five emic dimensions: feeling the oppression of death, fighting alongside family, intensifying bodily healing efforts, settling unfinished business, and ending the struggle to control pain. Implications for caregivers are discussed.

The Terror Management Function of Descendent Continuity: Evidence That Descendent Continuity Acts as a Distal and Proximal Defense

Previous researches showed that offspring can function as a distal defense, we presented seven studies to further explore the role of offspring in terror management for Chinese people based on their unique fertility culture. Both Studies 1a and 1b found that mortality salience increased desire for children. Study 2 showed that offspring salience reduced the effect of mortality salience on social transgressions judgments. Study 3 revealed that disruption of procreation strivings increased death-thought accessibility. Study 4 demonstrated that conscious responses to worldview threats overwhelmed the unconscious compensation effect of worldview threats on desire for children. Study 5a and Study 5b found that offspring salience decreased death anxiety for parents and nonparents. Taken together, these findings expand terror management theory, emphasizing descendent continuity not only as a related yet separate distal defense from the cultural worldviews, self-esteem, and close relationship but also as a proximal defense, especially for Chinese.