Sabrina Bonichini

Attention and reaction to distress in infancy: A longitudinal study.

The primary aim of this study was to verify whether early individual differences in look duration are related to general mechanisms of the infant nervous system that draw together attention and emotion. Thirty-one infants were observed at 3, 5, and 11 months of age. Facial expressions of pain and distress were observed by means of C. Izards (1979) Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System 90 s after routine pediatric vaccinations. Several measures of visual attention were taken experimentally in a separate testing session. Significant correlations between measures of attention and duration of facial expressions of pain and distress were found at each age level. Infants who showed pain or distress for a shorter time period also paid attention for a shorter time period and vice versa. The main conclusion is that individual differences combining control of both pain and attention can be identified from early infancy.

Culture, Temperament, and the “Difficult Child”: A Study in Seven Western Cultures

Charles M. Super1, Giovanna Axia2, Sara Harkness1, Barbara Welles-Nyström3, Piotr Olaf Zylicz4, Parminder Parmar5, Sabrina Bonichini2, Moisés Rios Bermúdez6, Ughetta Moscardino2, Violet Kolar7, Jesús Palacios6, Andrzej Eliasz4, and Harry McGurk7 1University of Connecticut, USA 2University of Padua, Italy 3Karolinska Institute, Sweden 4Warsaw School of Social Psychology, Poland 5The Pennsylvania State University, USA 6University of Seville, Spain 7Australian Institute of Family Studies, Australia

Perceived social support and health-related quality of life in AYA cancer survivors and controls.

This study compared education levels, health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) and perceived social support of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors with those of a control group of peers with no history of serious illness. The links between socio‐demographic and medical factors and AYA cancer survivor outcomes were investigated.

Parental perceptions of health-related quality of life in children with leukemia in the second week after the diagnosis: a quantitative model

PurposeThe focus is on describing the child’s health-related quality of life (HRQL) at the time of diagnosis as perceived by parents, by using an empirical model of their psychosocial context.Patients and methodsPatients were 128 leukemic children and their families recruited at the Haematology–Oncology Clinic of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Padova. The families were interviewed by a clinical psychologist during the first hospitalization of their children using the Ecocultural Family Interview—Cancer (EFI-C). This interview aimed at understanding the family daily routines as it relates to the child with cancer and the meaning and experience of the situation. Demographic data about children and their families also were collected.ResultsThe EFI-C interviews were read for content and then coded; these items were grouped into 11 major dimensions, three dealing with the child in the hospital and eight concerning the family. An empirical model of path analysis was estimated to evaluate perceived child’s HRQL at the second week from the diagnosis inside the psychosocial context. This model shows that perceived child’s HRQL is predicted by parental trust in the medical staff, perceived child coping, and perceived child adaptability. These last two predictors are in turn moderated by the fixed factor child age and mediated by parenting.ConclusionA better knowledge of parents’ views and expectations regarding their children’s HRQL during the first treatments for pediatric leukemia may facilitate the communication processes in the hospital and may help to provide improved psychosocial care for the child during the first treatments for leukemia.

Quality of life and psychosocial sequelae in children undergoing hematopoietic stem‐cell transplantation: A review

Abstract:  This paper reviews the research published in the last 18 yr on QoL and psycho‐social sequelae in pediatric patients who have undergone HSCT. A corpus of 47 empirical studies was selected and is presented here. From this selection five main topics linked to psychological adjustment to HSCT emerged: QoL; psychological symptoms; cognitive sequelae; social adaptation; psycho‐social interventions for children. The information which emerged from the review of the literature is discussed with special attention to methodological issues. Directions for future research are proposed.

Post‐traumatic stress symptoms among mothers of children with leukemia undergoing treatment: a longitudinal study

To assess post‐traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in mothers of children over 2 years of leukemia treatment, to identify possible early family and child predictors of this symptomatology and to indicate the temporal trajectory of PTSS.

Perceived social support and health related quality of life in AYA cancer survivors of childhood and controls

This study compared education levels, health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) and perceived social support of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors with those of a control group of peers with no history of serious illness. The links between socio‐demographic and medical factors and AYA cancer survivor outcomes were investigated.

Post-traumatic stress symptoms in mothers of children with leukaemia undergoing the first 12 months of therapy: Predictive models

The aim of this study consists in the measurement of psychological health and adaptation in mothers of children during the first 12 months of treatment for leukaemia and in the identification of possible early predictors. Ninety-four mothers were followed longitudinally at one week (T1), one month (T2), six months (T3) and 12 months (T4) post-diagnosis. The instruments used were: PTSD symptom checklist, BSI-18, Problem Scale, Ladder of life and an in-depth interview (EFI-C). Couple connectedness, family routine reorganisation, parental communication around the childs illness and trust in the medical care significantly increased from T1 to T4. Two models are proposed concerning possible predictors of mothers’ PTSS at T2 and at T3. Clinical suggestions are proposed on the basis of our empirical findings in order to plan informative, clinical and practical interventions for mothers of children under treatment for leukaemia.

Eliciting Adaptive Emotion in Conversations with Parents of Children Receiving Therapy for Leukemia

Clinician–parent communication may often be difficult, especially soon after the diagnosis. The aims of this article are to identify the communication strategies associated with expressions of adaptive emotions in parents and to explore the effect of the type of leukemia and of parents gender on parents’ expressions of emotions. The data are obtained from 4.622 conversational turns of 20 videotaped interviews with 10 mothers and 10 fathers of children at their first hospitalization for leukemia. A coding scheme for parent emotional expressions was reliably applied by two independent judges. An original self-report questionnaire on parents’ emotional states was used before and after the interview. Positive politeness of interviewer elicits adaptive emotional expressions in parents. Mothers of children with acute myeloid leukemia and fathers of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia appear more distressed during the interview. This interview can be identified as an innovative technique of communication with parents of children with cancer.

Self-Esteem and Academic Difficulties in Preadolescents and Adolescents Healed from Paediatric Leukaemia

Adolescents with cancer may demonstrate problems in their self-esteem and schooling. This study aims to screen the preadolescents and adolescents more at risk in their self-esteem perception and schooling difficulties post-five years from the end of therapy. Twenty-five paediatric ex-patients healed from leukaemia were recruited at the Haematology-Oncologic Clinic (University of Padua). The mean age of the children was 13.64 years (Standard Deviation (SD)) = 3.08, range = 10–19 years), most were treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) (84%) and relatively equally distributed by gender. They filled in the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Test, while parents completed a questionnaire on their child’s schooling. Global self-esteem was mostly below the 50 percentile (58.5%), especially regarding interpersonal relationships (75%). An independent sample t-test showed significant mean differences on the emotionality scale (t = 2.23; degree of freedom (df) = 24; p = 0.03) and in the bodily experience scale (t = 3.02; df = 24; p = 0.006) with survivors of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) having lower scores. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed significant mean differences in the bodily experience scale (F = 12.31; df = 2, p = 0.0001) depending on the survivors’ assigned risk band. The parent reports showed that 43.5% of children had difficulties at school. Childhood AML survivors with a high-risk treatment were more at risk in their self-esteem perceptions. Preventive interventions focusing on self-esteem and scholastic wellbeing are suggested in order to help their return to their normal schedules.