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Measuring cancer-specific child adjustment difficulties: Development and validation of the Children's Oncology Child

Kylie Burke1, Maria McCarthy2,3, Cherie Lowe4

  • 1Parenting and Family Support Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.

Pediatric Blood & Cancer
|October 9, 2016
PubMed

Insights

A new scale, the Children's Oncology Child Adjustment Scale (ChOCs), effectively measures child adjustment difficulties in pediatric cancer patients. This validated tool aids in assessing sleep, eating, and behavioral issues for better clinical care and research.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Oncology
  • Psychometrics
  • Child Psychology

Background:

  • Childhood cancer presents significant adjustment challenges, including sleep and eating disturbances, and behavioral difficulties.
  • Existing instruments lack validation for assessing specific child adjustment issues related to pediatric cancer treatments.
  • A need exists for a reliable and valid parent-reported measure tailored to this population.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop and evaluate the reliability and validity of a novel parent-reported scale for child adjustment in pediatric oncology.
  • To create a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring adjustment difficulties in children undergoing cancer treatment.

Main Methods:

  • One hundred thirty-two parents of children (aged 2-10 years) diagnosed with cancer completed the new scale and other validated measures.
  • Data were collected from two pediatric oncology centers, with children at least 4 weeks postdiagnosis and within 12 months of active treatment.
  • Factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity were analyzed using statistical methods.

Main Results:

  • Principal component analysis identified five factors: Sleep Difficulties, Impact of Child's Illness, Eating Difficulties, Hospital-Related Behavior Difficulties, and General Behavior Difficulties.
  • The resulting 25-item Children's Oncology Child Adjustment Scale (ChOCs) showed strong internal consistency (α = 0.79-0.91).
  • The ChOCs demonstrated construct validity through significant correlations with corresponding measures.

Conclusions:

  • The ChOCs is a new, validated measure specifically designed for assessing child adjustment difficulties in pediatric oncology.
  • Preliminary findings suggest the ChOCs possesses robust theoretical and psychometric properties.
  • Further research is needed to confirm reliability, validity, and generalizability across diverse pediatric oncology populations.
Abstract

Keywords:
cancerchild adjustmentmeasurementoncologypediatricpsychometric

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