Psychological adjustment of children with cancer as compared with healthy children: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Childhood cancer is a life-threatening disease and the cause of great stress for children who suffer from itsdiagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study was to verify, through meta-analytical tools, whether childrenin active treatment for cancer differ in their psychological adjustment from healthy children. Ten studiesfulfilled the inclusion criteria for the meta-analytic approach. A fixed effects model did not yield significantresults, suggesting that there is no evidence for a difference in psychological adjustment between ill andhealthy children, inasmuch as the former seem to adjust as well as the latter. Some methodological aspects arealso considered, including issues related to the definition of psychological adjustment and its operationalisa-tion and to the relative scarcity of published articles in this particular realm. Moreover, suggestions for futurestudies are discussed