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Coping and Adaptation in Pediatric Cancer: Current Perspectives

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Pediatric Psychosocial Oncology: Textbook for Multidisciplinary Care

Abstract

Over the past decade research on coping in pediatric cancer has continued to highlight both the range of factors affecting individual responses and the persisting need for good clinical evaluation and intervention to support optimal functioning. Coping is a fluid process that is a transaction between the person and the environment – affected by one’s age, personality, experiences, and situational demands. Coping in the context of cancer requires acknowledging the threat cancer poses and the demands of cancer treatment while at the same time managing emotional reactions and maintaining essential aspects of the child’s or family member’s identity and role in the family and community. Sensitive, experienced clinicians can distinguish reactions indicative of poor coping and unstable emotional status from the appropriate and expected expression of “clinically relevant distress.” Recent research has highlighted both the potential traumatic sequelae of pediatric cancer and the impressive resilience shown by many patients and families. Improved assessment options and interventions aimed at fostering parent and patient skills in mastering troubling demands of pediatric cancer care offer hope, but the field has room for future research into how to more fully meet the ongoing need for enhanced coping to reduce patient and family distress during pediatric cancer care.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Mary Jo Kupst PhD

  2. Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Andrea Farkas Patenaude PhD

Authors
  1. Mary Jo Kupst PhD
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  2. Andrea Farkas Patenaude PhD
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Correspondence to Mary Jo Kupst PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hemat. Oncol. Massachusetts General Hosp, Div. of Child & Adol. Psychiatry & Pedia, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Annah N. Abrams

  2. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Depart. of Psychosocial Oncol. & Palliat, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Anna C. Muriel

  3. National Cancer Instit. Center for Cance, Pediatric Oncology Branch , Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Lori Wiener

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Kupst, M.J., Patenaude, A.F. (2016). Coping and Adaptation in Pediatric Cancer: Current Perspectives. In: Abrams, A., Muriel, A., Wiener, L. (eds) Pediatric Psychosocial Oncology: Textbook for Multidisciplinary Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21374-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21374-3_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21373-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-21374-3

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