Hoping Is Coping: A Guiding Theoretical Framework for Promoting Coping and Adjustment Following Pediatric Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract

Objective: To determine the pattern of resilience and adjustment following pediatric cancer diagnosis and to evaluate hope as a mediator of adjustment.

Methods: 61 participants with pediatric cancer completed measures of hope, depression, anxiety, and quality of life (QoL) within 4 weeks of cancer diagnosis and every 3 months for 1 year.

Results: Participants showed high and increasing levels of hope and QoL, as well as low and decreasing levels of depression and anxiety. Linear mixed-effects regression analyses revealed changes in depression, anxiety, and hope to be significant predictors of changes in QoL. Changes in hope were found to partially mediate the effects of depression and anxiety on QoL.

Conclusions: While a variety of interventions are efficacious for treating anxiety and depression, hope theory provides a framework for choosing interventions that may more globally promote children's ability to maintain good functioning, adjustment, well-being, and QoL following cancer diagnosis.

Keywords: anxiety; depression; hope; pediatric cancer; quality of life; resilience.