Emotion Regulation in Pediatric Cancer Survivors

描述（由申请人提供）：目前的研究表明，接受癌症治疗的儿童中有很大一部分在治疗后的心理社会调整中遇到困难，包括创伤后应激、焦虑和抑郁的症状。不幸的是，到目前为止，在预测哪些儿童将受到癌症和接受必要但往往是痛苦的治疗的最负面影响方面，成功率有限。目前的研究旨在验证这一假设，即儿童的治疗后调整与他们的情绪调节能力和父母的过程，影响他们如何处理和科普强烈的负面情绪。迷走神经张力作为一种情绪调节的生理指标，已被证明可以缓冲儿童对环境中压力源的负面心理影响。然而，到目前为止，还没有研究调查迷走神经张力是否与癌症幸存者的心理社会功能有关。这项研究将采用多方法、多受试者、横断面设计，在150名儿童中测试迷走神经张力和调节之间的关系，其中一半将是急性淋巴细胞白血病的幸存者。此外，父母如何看待情绪并帮助他们的孩子管理他们的情绪-他们的“元情绪哲学”-将被视为癌症治疗与一系列负面心理社会结果之间关系的潜在缓冲。了解情绪调节能力和癌症治疗后的调整之间的关系可以帮助建立新的有效的基于经验的干预措施，重点是（1）教孩子如何在痛苦时进行生理学上的自我安慰，（2）教父母帮助孩子管理他们的情绪。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Current research indicates that a significant subset of children who are treated for cancer experience difficulty in post-treatment psychosocial adjustment, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression. Unfortunately, to date there has been limited success in predicting which children will be most negatively affected by having cancer and undergoing necessary but often painful treatments. The current study is designed to test the hypothesis that children's post-treatment adjustment is related to both their emotional regulation abilities and to parenting processes that affect how they process and cope with strong negative emotions. Vagal tone, a physiological index of emotion regulation, has been shown to buffer children from negative psychological effects of stressors in their environment. However, up to this point, no research has investigated whether vagal tone is related to psychosocial functioning in cancer survivors. The proposed study will use a multi-method, multi-informant, cross-sectional design to test the relationship between vagal tone and adjustment in 150 children, half of whom will be survivors of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Additionally, how parents think about emotions and help their children manage their emotions - their "meta-emotion philosophy" - will be examined as a potential buffer in the relationship between cancer treatment and range of negative psychosocial outcomes. Understanding the relationship between emotion regulation abilities and adjustment following cancer treatment can help build new and effective empirically based interventions that focus on (1) teaching children how to physiologically self-soothe when distressed and (2) teaching parents to help children manage their emotions.