Predicting trajectories of behavioral adjustment in children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Sint Nicolaas, Simone M., Hoogerbrugge, Peter M., van den Bergh, Esther M. M., Custers, José A. E., Gameiro, Sofia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2496-2004, Gemke, Reinoud J. B. J. and Verhaak, Chris M. 2016. Predicting trajectories of behavioral adjustment in children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Supportive Care in Cancer 24 (11) , pp. 4503-4513. 10.1007/s00520-016-3289-9

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Abstract

Purpose Previous research showed that children with cancer are at risk for developing behavioral adjustment problems after successful treatment; however, the course of adjustment remains unclear. This study focuses on adjustment trajectories of children during treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and aims to distinguish subgroups of patients showing different trajectories during active treatment, and to identify sociodemographic, medical, and psychosocial predictors of the distinct adjustment trajectories. Methods In a multicenter longitudinal study, 108 parents of a child (response rate 80 %) diagnosed with ALL were assessed during induction treatment (T0), after induction/consolidation treatment (T1), and after end of treatment (T2). Trajectories of child behavioral adjustment (Child Behavior Checklist; CBCL) were tested with latent class growth modeling (LCGM) analyses. Results For internalizing behavior, a three-trajectory model was found: a group that experienced no problems (60 %), a group that experienced only initial problems (30 %), and a group that experienced chronic problems (10 %). For externalizing behavior, a three-trajectory model was also found: a group that experienced no problems (83 %), a group that experienced chronic problems (12 %), and a group that experienced increasing problems (5 %). Only parenting stress and baseline QoL (cancer related) were found to contribute uniquely to adjustment trajectories. Conclusions The majority of the children (77 %) showed no or transient behavioral problems during the entire treatment as reported by parents. A substantial group (23 %) shows maladaptive trajectories of internalizing behavioral problems and/or externalizing behavioral problems. Screening for risk factors for developing problems might be helpful in early identification of these children.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Additional Information:	This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Publisher:	Springer Verlag
ISSN:	0941-4355
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	28 September 2016
Date of Acceptance:	30 May 2016
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 11:51
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/94946

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