Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Summer;4(3):109-13.

"Vitality" a Missing Link in Adjustment to Childhood Cancer

M Firoozi  1 , M A Besharat  1 , H Farahani  1 , A Ghaed Rahmat  2
Affiliations

"Vitality" a Missing Link in Adjustment to Childhood Cancer

M Firoozi et al. Iran J Cancer Prev. 2011 Summer.

Abstract

Background: A number of randomized trial studies and longitudinal researches emphasize that despite problems in social adjustment and cognitive damages, children with cancer demonstrate good emotional adjustment.

Methods: Most of the research findings in this area are obtained using objective tools such as questionnaires. "Vitality of children", as a drawing tool, was used as a basis to draw a comparison between children with cancer and healthy children in this study. Accordingly, 112 children with cancer (5 girls and 57 boys aged 3 to 12 years) and 123 healthy children (77 girls and 46 boys aged 3 to 12 years) participated in the study.

Results: Findings showed that the vitality of the two groups differed significantly. Perhaps, children with cancer repress negative emotions and avoid expressing their feelings. MANOVA was used to compare the vitality scores between groups and to explore the impact of different variables.

Conclusion: Making use of such tools that indirectly examine the emotional experience of children with cancer would be beneficial. Neglecting this issue can cause children with cancer to be deprived of r receiving supportive counselling.

Keywords: Child; Emotions; Malignancy; Vitality.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Bruce M. A systematic and conceptual review of posttraumatic stress in childhood cancer survivors and their parents. Clinical Psychology, Review. 2006;26:233–56. - PubMed
    1. Mulhern RK, Fairclough D, Ochs J. A prospective comparison of europsychologic performance of children surviving leukemia who received 18-Gy, 24-Gy or no cranial radiation. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 1991;9:1348–56. - PubMed
    1. Naomi W. Neuro-cognitive outcome in survivors of pediatric cancer. Pediatrics. 2011;23:27–33. - PubMed
    1. Gurney JG, Krull KR, Kadan-Lottick N, Nicholson HS, Nathan PC, Zebrack B, et al. Social Outcomes in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study Cohort. Journal of clinical psychology. 2009;27:230–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Noll RB, Marsland A, Cheong J, Bukowski WM. Peer Relationships of Children with Cancer: Homophily and Social Acceptance. Master of Science. 2010;30:101–19.

LinkOut - more resources