Table 1.

Participant Characteristics of Families That Contributed Data to the Ways of Telling Framework (n=56)

	Adolescents N=26	Ill parent N=10	Well parent N=20
Gender
Male	10 (38.5%)	6 (60%)	4 (%)
Female	16 (61.5%)	4 (40%)	16 (%)
Age (years)
Mean	15	55	50
Range	12–18	40–62	34–60
Religious affiliation
Catholic	8 (31%)
Protestant	5 (19%)
Jehovah's Witness	1 ( 4%)
None	5 (19%)
No response	7 (27%)
Race
Caucasian	20 (77%)
African American	4 (15%)
Mixed race	1 ( 4%)
No response	1 ( 4%)
Current family annual income (n=22)
Under $10,000	5 (23%)
$10,001-$30,000	5 (23%)
$30,001- $50,000	3 (13%)
Over $50,001	7 (32%)
No response	2 (9%)
Diagnosis (n=22)
Cancer		17 (77%)
ALS		1 (5%)
MS		1 (5%)
Pulmonary disease		1 (5%)
Mad cow		1 (5%)
No response		1 (5%)
Time from Interview to parent's death (days)
Mean	41
Range	0–183

Note: The ill parent in four families died within one week of the interview. One parent died during the adolescent's interview.

ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; MS, multiple sclerosis.