Research project Children's strategies for dealing with cancer: A video ethnography about play, imagination and copin
A central concept in the planned work is ‘imaginal coping’, which Clark (2003) defines as the use of imagination to transform the suffering of the disease.
It refers to psychological processes where children in daily life use great ingenuity, play and imagination to master stressful circumstances. It often involves social interaction in one way or another. How different adults (parents, nurses, teachers, play therapists, hospital clowns) play a role in children's play, imagination and coping is part of this.
Project description
Play, imagination and coping are important aspects of all care work with children. When it comes to children with cancer, it is often a long course of treatment with many actors involved: doctors, play therapists and more who can all play a role in the child's own opportunities to use play, imagination and coping. It is then interesting to document how different categories in care support, facilitate and initiate children's imaginal coping.
The planned work is a continuation of a video ethnographic fieldwork that took place during a year at a pediatric oncology center. The most important material from the field is the already collected video-recorded material, which amounts to 93 hours. The material also consists of extensive field notes and interviews.
Project members
Project managers
Camilla Rindstedt
Universitetslektor, docent
Publications
Rindstedt, C. (2013). Children’s strategies to handle cancer: A video ethnography of imaginal coping