[Coping scales for children with a chronic disease: a review of the literature]

Abstract

The review of the international literature presented here aimed to determine the measuring instruments of the coping of children chronic disease currently available. This research task was carried out starting from the numerical databases Psychinfo, Medline and Science Direct with various key words such as coping, child, chronic illness, assessment. It was related to the years 1985-2006. More than 200 articles were selected bearing on the adaptation of children with a chronic disease. Among these articles, only 6 measuring instruments of coping could be updated in the paediatric population. All these instruments aim to evaluate the way in which the children manage to overcome the negative effects of their disease. Two types of evaluation were, however, distinguished: (1) concise evaluations of the adaptive strategies to a whole of stressors related to the chronic disease (pains, hospitalization...); (2) detailed evaluations of the answers of coping to the painful procedures related to the chronic disease. The discussion of this analysis of the literature relates to the need for developing and for using in the clinical practices the measuring instruments of the coping to the chronic disease during the child.