# Men’s experience of caring for a family member with cancer: a theory based on data

## TL;DR

This study explores how men experience caring for a family member with cancer and develops a theory explaining their emotional and symbolic interactions during caregiving.

## Contribution

A substantive theory is developed based on men's lived experiences of caregiving for a family member with cancer.

## Key findings

- The central category of the theory is 'The love that drives care', reflecting men's emotional and symbolic engagement in caregiving.
- The study reveals how men perceive, act, and adapt to the challenges of caregiving through interactional and symbolic processes.
- Feelings, perceptions, and difficulties faced by male caregivers are systematically identified and analyzed.

## Abstract

to understand the meaning attributed by men to the experience of caring for their family member with cancer and to develop a substantive theory that represents the experience of men caring for their family member with cancer.

this is qualitative research guided by the methodological framework of Grounded Theory and the precepts of Symbolic Interactionism. A form with identification and interview data was used. The analysis followed the substantive and theoretical coding stages.

12 male caregivers of their family member with cancer participated. The constant comparative analysis of the data allowed the creation of a substantive theory “Experiencing the care of a family member with cancer: men as a caregivers” explaining the experience that has as its central category “The love that drives care”, representing the symbolic actions and attitudes of men living in the context of illness due to cancer and care

the theory allowed us to understand feelings, perceptions, ways of acting and facing the diagnosis, providing care, recognizing difficulties and learning from the situations that arise, making explicit the interactional processes and symbolic elements present and how these influence male caregivers in their actions and attitudes.