Peer Relationships and Adjustment in Children with Cancer

Abstract

Evaluated the psychosocial adaptations of children with cancer (n = 24, ages 8-18) as compared with same classroom controls on indices of (a) peer- and self-perceptions of sociability, aggression, and social isolation; (b) overall popularity; (c) mutual friendships; (d) feelings of loneliness; and (e) self-concept in multiple domains. Although the peer report data showed that children with cancer had a social reputation as significantly more socially isolated, no significant differences were found for their popularity, number of mutual friends, loneliness, or self-worth. Findings suggest that children with cancer have a reputation as more socially isolated, but differences were not found on measures of acceptance by peers, self-concept, or loneliness.

Depression in pediatric patients before and 1 year after heart or heart-lung transplantation

“…Both patients had problems with body image, became extremely anxious about their health, and felt socially isolated from their peer groups-findings that have also been reported in adolescents with diabetes 25 and cancer. 26 Although there were no differences between mean scores for boys and girls pre-transplant, girls had higher scores after transplant, with the differences approaching statistical significance. One possible contributory factor is the effects of the drugs on physical appearance-a source of distress for many patients posttransplant, but particularly for girls.…”

Social, emotional, and behavioral functioning of children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

“…Factor analysis of these roles has revealed 3 underlying constructs: 1) sociability/leadership (e.g., someone who is a good leader, somebody who has many friends), 2) aggressive/disruptive (e.g., a person who gets into fights a lot, somebody who picks on other children), and 3) sensitive/isolated (e.g., someone who is usually sad, someone who is often left out). Dimension scores of the RCP have been shown to be both internally consistent (peer ␣ values range from 0.81 to 0.95; teacher ␣ values range from 0.58 to 0.76; self ␣ values range from 0.71 to 0.99) and stable; RCP-peer correlations across a 17-month interval range from 0.63 to 0.65 (31,32,35). Peer nominations on the RCP correlate significantly with teacher (0.35-0.51) (31,36) and self (0.14-0.22) (37) nominations.…”

“…Dimension scores of the RCP have been shown to be both internally consistent (peer ␣ values range from 0.81 to 0.95; teacher ␣ values range from 0.58 to 0.76; self ␣ values range from 0.71 to 0.99) and stable; RCP-peer correlations across a 17-month interval range from 0.63 to 0.65 (31,32,35). Peer nominations on the RCP correlate significantly with teacher (0.35-0.51) (31,36) and self (0.14-0.22) (37) nominations. Moreover, in 1388 NOLL ET AL several longitudinal studies, the sociability/leadership score in childhood was shown to be predictive of later indices of competence, whereas the aggressive/disruptive and sensitive/ isolated scores were shown to be predictive of psychopathologic disorders and behavioral problems (38)(39)(40)(41).…”

“…and social acceptance ("Is the child liked?"). To ensure that the child with JRA was not stigmatized, the study was described as a friendship project, with no mention of JRA, the medical center, or the ill child (31). All peers in the classroom who had returned a consent form (1,554 [85%] of 1,829) completed the peer-based assessment (Table 1) (32)(33)(34).…”

“…Prior to conducting analyses, Z-score transformations were completed on the data from each classroom to adjust for unequal class sizes. Based on previous work using these measures with children with chronic illness (27,31,35,41), our primary analytic strategy for hypothe- To reduce the probability of Type I error, Holm's procedure was used (53). The P values presented in the tables were not adjusted.…”