Family accommodation in childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer survivors: A scoping review protocol

Long-term survival rates for childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancers have increased substantially, yet survivors often face ongoing physical, psychological, and social challenges. Family dynamics play a key role in survivor adjustment. Family accommodation, defined as behaviour modifications by family members intended to reduce distress, may be one such important factor influencing psychological adjustment. Despite extensive research in mental health populations, the role of family accommodation in the context of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancers has not been explored. The main objective of this scoping review is to map and synthesize existing evidence on how family accommodation has been conceptualized, measured and linked to the health, health-related behaviors, and mental health of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer survivors. Secondary objectives are to examine the relationship between family accommodation and caregiver psychological well-being, and to identify how this construct is measured in this context. This review will include studies of any design that investigate family accommodation among individuals diagnosed with cancer between birth and 39 years of age and/or their family members. Database search will extract eligible articles from Medline ALL, Embase Classic +Embase, Emcare, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PsycInfo on the OvidSP platform, and Scopus from Elsevier from each database inception to October 2024. The review will follow the JBI methodology for scoping review guidance and will be reported according to PRISMA-ScR. By synthesizing available evidence, this review will provide a foundation for understanding how family accommodation shapes adjustment in cancer survivorship. The findings will inform future research and contribute to family-centered survivorship care. This review was preregistered on the Open Science Framework (OSF). Registration https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/V7UFK.