Children Coping with Cancer: Associations with Stress Reactivity, Age and Gender
Hodges, Keli
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2018-04-23
Abstract
The present study focuses on how gender, age, and stress reactivity are associated with the ways that children cope with cancer. The sample consisted of 336 families; parents and children completed questionnaires near the time of the child’s cancer diagnosis. Bivariate correlations, independent samples t-tests and linear multiple regression analyses were performed. The results showed that stress reactivity, but not age or gender, was associated with the type of coping a child used. Children who reported less reactivity to stress used more primary control and secondary control coping, while children who were more stress reactive used more disengagement coping.