The influence of gender, treatment type and time since

diagnostic on the relationship between parental distress and

emotional and behavior problems in children with cancer

Parental psychological distress influences the well-being that

children with oncologic diseases may experience during
chemotherapy and/or radiologic therapy (ChT/RT). The purpose of
this study was to investigate the relationship between parental
distress and emotional and behavioral problems (PD and EBP) in
children with cancer. It was hypothesized that gender differences,
the type of treatment and the period of time since diagnosis could
influence the relationship between PD and EBP. The ecological
purpose of this study was to adapt the psychological intervention
to various relevant differences between patients.

A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed using the

Profile of Emotional Distress to measure the PD level and the
Child/Young Behavioral Checklist to identify EBP of children with
cancer/leukemia. Seventy two subjects were recruited from two
Oncology Institutes from Bucharest. The participants were
children (N=36) with cancer/leukemia undergoing active ChT
and/or RT (mean=13.4, SD= 3.7). The sample includes 17 girls
and 19 boys, 61.1 % ongoing a combined treatment and 47.2%
being diagnosed since more than six months. Thirty six attending
parents (mean=40.4, SD=7.2) participated at the study.

Spearmans rank correlation coefficient revealed statistically

significant correlations between PD and depression (r=.41,
p=.01), social problems (r=.36, p=.03) and attention difficulties
(r=.35, p=.03) of the children, that are predominantly manifested
in boys (e.g. for depression r=.62, social problems r=.51,
attention difficulties r=.5. Depressive symptoms increase with the
longer hospitalization and with the combined treatment.
 The findings indicate that psychological intervention should
be adapted on gender difference, ongoing treatment type ad
duration of hospitalization.

: The study results indicate that the intervention direction should focus on the
relationship between the parent and the patient, on the decrease of depressive and
anxiety symptoms and social problems and on the implication of the extended
family in the therapy process. This adapted intervention could lead to an
improvement in the quality of life of the children with cancer and their families.

Westen, D., Morrison, K. (2001). A multidimensional Meta-Analysis of treatments for

depression, Panic and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. An empirical examination of the
status of empirically supported treatments. Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, 69, 865-899.