• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.85-95
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• 2003

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare psychosocial adjustment in children aged 4-11 years with cancer between on and off treatment. Method: The data was collected from parents of children with cancer through interviews with structured questionnaire at the pediatric outpatient department and inpatient ward of one university hospital located in Seoul. The instrument were the Child Behavior Check List(CBCL) developed by Achenbach(1991) and revised to standardize for Korean children by Oh et al(1997). Result: Total behavior problem score for children on treatment was greater than the score off treatment but there was no significant difference. Children on treatment reported higher levels of depression/anxiety, withdrawal, internalizing scores than children off treatment. Social competence score of children off treatment was greater than the score on treatment and the difference of school performance score of children between on and off treatment was not significant. The scores on the withdrawal, somatic complaints, social immaturity, internalizing scales in the cancer group including both on and off treatment was greater than normative findings in the general population. The scores on the school competence of children off treatment were lower than the norms for healthy children. Conclusion: Findings from this study support the importance of nursing interventions to facilitate the adjustment of children with cancer both on and off therapy.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.294-304
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• 1998

Illness is a situational crisis which affects entire family members. Children have different experiences and responses when their sibling has a cancer. there are many studies on sibling experiences to childhood cancer which have many problems in the USA. The main purpose of this study is to describe sibling experiences to childhood cancer accurately and coprehensively by collecting data from sibling to provide the data to develop nursing interventions for the families with childhood cancer. The data was collected from October 1 to November 6, 1995. A total of ten siblings with childhood cancer were interviewed. The meaningful contents were classified and categorized to four areas. Theses areas include knowledge and perception related to illness, changes in family life, changes in school life, and siblings' marturation. The results of this study were as follows 1. Knowledge and perception related to childhood cancer : Children had limited knowledge about illness and expressed the desire to tow more about sibling's illness. 2. Changes in family and school life : Children expressed loneness, emptiness, sadness, depression about seperation with the mother and sibling, family mood change, leisure activities and financial difficulites. Many children reported that their school performance had suffered since sibling's illness. 3. Maturation of children : Some positive outcoms related to having a sibling with a cancer are maturation, increased affection for the sibling, empathy for their parents. The results of this study indicate that it is important to develop comprehensive nursing intervention programs for the families with a childhood cancer.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.383-394
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• 2004

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify resiliency factor, to test causal relationship and effect of resiliency factors on adaptation in families of children with cancer. A conceptual framework was constructed based on McCubbin's resiliency model. Hypotheses were tested with empirical data. Method: Data were collected using self-report questionnaire from 232 families of children with cancer. The collected data were analyzed using the SAS program and LISREL program for covariance structural analysis. Result: Family hardiness and problem-solving coping had significant direct effects on adaptation in families of children with cancer. Social support had significant indirect and total effect on adaptation. Family Schema had significant direct effect on family hardiness and problem-solving coping. Problem-solving communication had a significant direct effect on family hardiness and an indirect effect on family functioning and problem-solving coping. Among the resiliency factors, family hardiness had the greatest effect on adaptation in family of children with cancer. Conclusion: The findings suggest that nursing interventions to enhance family hardiness, problem-solving coping and social support would result in an increase in adaptation in families of children with cancer. An integrated intervention that emphasizes and promotes resiliency factors should be developed and established for families of children with cancer.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.293-300
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• 2003

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe health problems and psychosocial adaptation in children with cancer and to determine the relationship between these two variables. Method: The data were collected from parents of 61 children with cancer, aged 4-11 years at one university hospital in Seoul. The instruments for this study were the Korea Child Behavior Check List (KCBCL) and a physical symptom checklist developed by the researchers. Result: The major health problems were coughing, sleeping disturbances, fatigue and weakness. The total behavior problem score for children in the cancer group was higher than the score for those in the norm group. The scores on the scales for withdrawal, somatic complaints, social immaturity, and internalizing problems were higher in the children with cancer compared to normative findings. Scores on social and school competence in the cancer group were lower than the norms for healthy children. The relationship between health problems and psychosocial adaptation was significant in the subscales of withdrawal, anxiety/depression, internalizing problems and social involvement in the off therapy group. Conclusions: This study shows the various areas that need further study in caring for children with cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.545-552
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• 2016

Background: The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a spiritual care training package in maternal caregivers of children with cancer. Materials and Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental study with pretest and posttest design consisting of a sample of 42 mothers of children diagnosed as having cancer. Participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. The training package consisted of seven group training sessions offered in a children's hospital in Tehran. All mothers completed the Spirituality & Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS) and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) at pre and post test and after a three month follow up. Results: There was significant difference between anxiety and spiritual, religious, Personalized care and total scores spiritual care between the intervention and control groups at follow-up (P<0.001).There was no statistically significant difference in stress and depression scores between the intervention and the control groups at follow-up. Conclusions: Findings show that spiritual care training program promotes spirituality, personalized care, religiosity and spiritual care as well as decreasing anxiety in mothers of children with cancer and decreases anxiety. It may be concluded that spiritual care training could be used effectively in reducing distressful spiritual challenges in mothers of children with cancer.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2006

In this thesis, Chapter I Introduction suggested the necessity of this research and defined related terms, and Chapter II defined hospice for children and examined the symptoms of pediatric cancers as well as the general characteristics of pediatric cancer patients. In particular, we surveyed the physical condition, psychological and emotional condition, financial condition, environmental aspect, educational aspect and spiritual aspect of pediatric cancer patients’ families, investigated pediatric cancer patients’ parents and siblings with regard to their understanding of the pediatric cancer patients’ death, and lastly considered spiritual care. Chapter III presented summaries and conclusions. In their developmental stage, pediatric cancer patients lack abilities to express themselves and are highly dependent on their parents, so parents who take care of cancer children have to make hard decisions and cancer children’s families are heavily burdened by the situation of preparing their children’s death and sending them away while denying their death, and for this reason they need help from specialists. That is, for pediatric cancer patients, we need highly experienced pediatricians or nurses skilful in managing young terminal patients as well as hospice counseling and family counselors for consulting on family crises. In particular, there is a keen need of child life support specialists. In addition, clergymen’s help is critical for spiritual care to ease the fear and terror of the unknown world, fear of death, etc. Moreover, in order to prevent cancer children from failing to adjust themselves to school life or peer relation after recovery, hospice service should provide cancer children with opportunities to learn school curriculums and associate with friends.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.54-63
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to examine the requirement for child life support specialist and fetal education for children with cancer. This research presented was composed with three chapters : First chapter, I presented the purpose, scope and definitions of this research. Second chapter, I defined about hospice care service for children with cancer and kind of pediatric cancer. And general characteristics of children with cancer, a understanding character of death and dietary therapy. Lastly, I defined and investigated about spiritual care. Third chapter, I concluded with some of findings and final suggestions based on the results. According to the developmental stages children with cancer are disability of communication competence and more dependence on their parents, therefore parents' decision making were more difficulty. And parents with a child who suffers from a cancer needs a counseling in order to discover the meaning of life. Parents' psychological experience about the caring for their child suffering from pediatric cancer was equal to broken hearts due to shadow of the child's death from time to time. In other words a parents with a child who suffers from a cancer needs comprehensive services such as hospice, consultor as well as wide experienced pediatrician and nurse. Child life support specialist can help them recover and improve their o주 potential strength in behalf of overcoming their difficulties. And pastoral counseling can help them reduce the fear and anxiety about unknown world and death. The systematically developed a school-based counseling program would help children adjust to the difficulties after a perfect cure because of children adjusted to school well when they have good peer relationships.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.22
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• pp.9905-9908
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• 2014

Background: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is the most common chronic infectious agent in the stomach. Most importantly, it may lead to atrophy, metaplasia and cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of H. pylori infection and to detect early mucosal changes that may lead to malignant degeneration in children. Materials and Methods: Children who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy were included. Familial history of gastric cancer was noted. Endoscopic examinations were performed by a single pediatric gastroenterologist. A minimum of three biopsy samples were collected during endoscopy. The patients were accepted as H. pylori infected if results of biopsies and rapid urease test were both positive. Biopsies were evaluated for the presence and degree of chronic inflammation, the activity and severity of gastritis, glandular atrophy and intestinal metaplasia. Results: A total of 750 children (388 boys, 362 girls) were evaluated in our study, with a mean age of 10.1 years. A total of 390 patients (52%) were found to be infected with H. pylori. Among the H. pylori infected patients, 289 (74%) were diagnosed to have chronic superficial gastritis, 24 (6.2%) had gastric atrophy. Most strikingly, intestinal metaplasia was observed in 11 children, all were in the H. pylori positive group. There was no difference in the mean of age, gender and socioeconomic class between H. pylori infected and non-infected groups. The frequency of gastric cancer in family members (4 in number) was higher in patients with H. pylori infection. No gastric cancer case was reported from the parents of non-infected children. The worst biopsy parameters (atropy and metaplasia) were improved after H. pylori eradication on control endoscopy. Conclusions: The current study shows a higher prevalence of familial history of gastric cancer in H. pylori infected children. Intestinal metaplasia was also higher in the infected children. Eradication of H. pylori infection for this risk group may prevent subsequent development of gastric cancer.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.66-75
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• 2006

Purpose: The present study was to identify the levels of stress and coping and their relationship in mothers of children with cancer. Methods: A total of 124 mothers were recruited from a university hospital from June 1, to August 31, 2004. Parental Stress Scale developed by Miles and Carter (1983), and the Coping Behavior Patterns developed by McCubbin (1979) were used. Data were analyzed using SAS PC+ 8.0 program. Results: The mean score for the stress level in the mothers of the children with cancer was 195.6 from the range of 0-250. The mean score for the level of coping stress by the mothers of children with cancer was 121.8 from the range of 0-165. The level of coping stress was particularly high when the relationship with their husband was good, and when they felt hope for the children's health status. Conclusions: The most stressful element to the mothers of the children with cancer was the 'treatment and the nursing process for the children.' The frequently used coping methods were 'communication with other parents in the same situation' and 'consultation with the expert.'

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.494-510
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• 2001

As a family respond to any stressful situation as a whole system, cancer diagnosis of a child, as a serious life event, could be emotional shock to destroy homeostasis of the family system. A family has a resilient capacity to adjust and adapt to stressful events. Previous studies have been focused on family stress and adaptation, but little attention has been given to family value as one of resilient factors. The data for model testing were collected from July 18, 2000 to August 30, 2000 and the analysis included 309 parents of children who are diagnosed as cancer, 18 or less years of age, and treated either hospitalized or at the outpatient clinics. The data analysis utilized SAS 6.12 and LISREL 8 for descriptive statistics, correlation, cluster analysis, factor analysis, and LISREL. The study findings are as follows. 1) Monthly income (γ=-0.28, t=-5.81) was the most important factor to explain family strain along with family support (γ=-0.11, t=-2.43), severity of children's illness (γ=0.26, t=5.22), and family stressor (γ=0.22, t=4.62). All of these factors together explained 40％ of variance in family strain. 2) Among general family value, the relationship with the parents (γ=0.28, t=4.89) and relationship with the children (γ=0.20, t=3.60) showed positive effects to family value for cancer children, while relationship with the spouse (γ=-0.19, t=-3.22) and the age of the cancer children (γ=-0.11, t=-2.21) showed negative effects. These predictors together explained 22％ of variance in family value for cancer children. 3) Family hardiness was explained mostly by family strain (γ=-0.53, t=-8.65) along with direct negative effects of family persistency and indirect negative effects of severity of children's illness, family stressor, relationship with the spouse, and the children's age. Family value for cancer children was the most important predictor with positive effect (γ=0.44, t=6.76) along with indirect effects of monthly income, relationship with the parents, relationship with the children, support from family and significant others, and confidence with the health professionals. 51％ of variance in family hardiness was explained by all of these predictors. 4) The most important predictor for family adaptation was family stressor (γ=-0.50, t=-6.85) with direct and indirect negative effects along with the severity of children's illness (γ=-0.27, t=-5.21). However, family value for cancer children showed compromised total effect (γ=-0.13, t=-1.99) with negative direct effects (γ=-0.28, t=-3.43) and positive indirect effects (γ=0.14, t=3.01). Similarly, confidence with the health professionals also showed compromised total effect (γ=0.09, t=1.99) with positive direct effects and negative indirect effects. Family hardiness showed the biggest positive direct effects while other factors such as monthly income, family stressor, family persistence, support of family and significant others, relationship with the parents, relationship with the children, and relationship with the spouse, and children's age showed indirect effects only. 39％ of variance in family adaptation was explained by all of these predictors.