Parent reports of children’s working memory, coping, and emotional/behavioral adjustment in pediatric brain tumor patients: A pilot study

Abstract

Neurocognitive problems in childhood survivors of brain tumors are well documented. Further, research has shown that problems in cognitive functioning may be associated with impairment in the use of complex strategies needed to cope with stress, including secondary control coping strategies (e.g., acceptance and cognitive reappraisal) which have been associated with fewer adjustment problems. The present study measured cognitive function, coping strategies, and adjustment in children ages 6-16 years at the time of brain tumor diagnosis and at two follow-up time-points up to 1 year post-diagnosis. In a prospective design, working memory was assessed in a total of 29 pediatric brain tumor patients prior to undergoing surgery, child self-reported coping was assessed at 6 months post-diagnosis, and parent-reported child adjustment was assessed at 12 months post-diagnosis. Significant correlations were found between working memory difficulties and secondary control coping. Secondary control coping was also negatively correlated with child attention and total problems. Regression analyses did not support secondary control coping mediating the association between working memory difficulties and child attention or total problems. These findings represent the first longitudinal assessment of the association between working memory, coping, and adjustment across the first year of a child's brain tumor diagnosis and suggest a possible role for early interventions addressing both working memory difficulties and coping in children with brain tumors.

Psychological Problems in Boys with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) with Central Nervous System (CNS) Involvement; A Descriptive Study

“…One of the limitations of this study is associated with CBCL that parents or nurses report about a child's behaviors. Usually, there is a gap in other reports and reality (32). Measuring behavioral problems with more accurate tools may lead to different results.…”

Stress and Coping in Youth With Spina Bifida: A Brief Longitudinal Study in a Summer Camp Setting

“…It may also be related to the EF deficits commonly found in SB ( Brown et al, 2008 ). Strong EF has been found to be associated with more use of secondary control coping in multiple pediatric populations ( Campbell et al, 2009 ; Desjardins et al, 2018 ). Further, another study found that stronger verbal comprehension was related to increased use of secondary control coping in youth with SCD ( Prussien et al, 2018 ).…”

Neurobehavioral Impairment in Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors: A Meta-Analysis

“…There was a significant level of heterogen ity across the different studies (I 2 = 54%, p < 0.01) and no significant publication bias w identified t (15) = 0.36, p = 0.72, Figure S5a. 2021) [83] reported more than o independent cohort in their study [24,30,36,37,39,40,42,43,[45][46][47]49,[55][56][57][58]60,61,[63][64][65][66][70][71][72][73][74][75]77,83]. (a) Abso-lute risk-attention problems; (b) Absolute risk-emotional; (c) Absolute risk psychosocial problems…”

“…The publication bias was n significant, as revealed by Egger's test t (18) = 0.92, p = 0.369 (Figure S6a). 2021) [83] reported more than one independent cohort in their study [24,30,36,37,39,40,42,43,[45][46][47]49…”

“…(a-c) Absolute risk of pediatric brain tumor survivors having neurobehavioral impairment. Dessens et al (2016) [49] and Youn et al (2021)[83] reported more than one independent cohort in their study[24,30,36,37,39,40,42,43,[45][46][47]49,55-58,60,61,63-66,70-75,77,81-83]. (a) Abso-lute risk -attention problems; (b) Absolute risk-emotional; (c) Absolute risk-psychosocial problems.…”