Children Coping with Cancer: Associations with Stress Reactivity, Age and Gender

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.