As health-related research on children shifts from seeking information about children to seeking information directly from them, researchers recognize the need for developmentally appropriate methods such as drawing to help children communicate their experiences. This international study sought to (a) explore and compare the nature of stressors of everyday life and disease that children with cancer in the United Kingdom and the United States experience, (b) explore and compare the coping measures they use to manage these stressors, and (c) examine the use of drawing to enhance communication. Participants included 22 children ages 7 to 18 years, 13 boys and 9 girls receiving treatment for cancer in the United Kingdom and the United States. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used within a grounded theory approach and included drawing to accompany the traditional grounded theory methods of interview and observation. Findings indicate that children, regardless of their ethnicity and other cultural components, respond to the childhood cancer experience in a similar manner. The use of drawing enhanced communication through direct visual expression and/or through verbal expression via the "campfire effect."

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Children with cancer and their families benefit from both social interaction and privacy in attempting to cope with the stresses of a child's hospitalization and illness. An analysis of findings from a study of stress and coping for children with cancer evaluated design features affecting social interaction and privacy at a hospital in the United Kingdom and a hospital in the United States and some of the ways in which these features and related hospital policies uphold the philosophy of family-centered care and support coping. Implications of these findings with the current call for single occupancy rooms in both countries are explored.

The results imply that hospitals may consider offering prompts to help viewers engage with art to enhance mood and exhibiting art that demonstrates empathy for patient suffering.

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