JOPHON NCPD (2023 Jul/Aug) - Art Unfolds Words: Expressing Hope Through Creative Art Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Have Advanced Cancer-Art Unfolds Words: Expressing Hope Through Creative Art Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Have Advanced Cancer

Art Unfolds Words: Expressing Hope Through Creative Art Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Have Advanced Cancer

Pdf Summary

This qualitative descriptive study explored how adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with advanced cancer understand and express hope, using both interviews and creative drawing. Fifteen participants aged 12–21 completed two semi-structured Zoom interviews. During the first interview, they discussed what hope meant to them and then created a drawing (mostly using a shared digital “Paint 3D” tool; one drew by hand). In the second interview, participants revisited and refined their narrative and drawing meanings. A board-certified art therapist conducted a post hoc analysis of the drawings and participants’ explanations, independently from the larger study’s narrative themes.

Five participants (all females aged 18–21 with hematologic cancers) produced drawings that depicted hope through nature-based landscapes and metaphors. Their titles and images—such as “Over the Rainbow,” “Growth in the Valley,” “Out of Darkness,” and “Light at the End of the Tunnel”—represented cancer as a journey through storms, valleys, darkness, and tunnels, with hope symbolized as rainbows, light sources, roots, anchors, hearts, footsteps, and future paths.

The art therapist’s thematic analysis identified key hope-related patterns: (1) <strong>Balance</strong>, expressed as holding both difficult and positive emotions (dark/light, storms/sun); (2) <strong>Comfort through familiarity</strong>, with hope grounded in familiar, soothing objects and places (nature, pets, music, crystals); (3) <strong>Treatment working</strong>, where signs of effective therapy or recovery (e.g., remission, hair regrowth, improvement after complications) reinforced hope; (4) <strong>Future orientation</strong>, including goals like travel, hiking, or regaining abilities; and (5) <strong>Connection</strong>, reflected in relational supports (family, care teams, neighbors) and non-isolated imagery.

The study concludes that drawing can help AYAs communicate hope and existential concerns beyond what they can easily verbalize, suggesting creative art may be useful clinically and should be further researched as a potential tool for assessing coping and distress in AYAs facing uncertain futures.

Keywords

adolescents and young adults

advanced cancer

hope expression

art therapy

drawing-based interviews

qualitative descriptive study

nature metaphors

future orientation

treatment response and remission

psychosocial support and connection