Emotion Regulation in Pediatric Cancer Survivors

描述(申请人提供)：目前的研究表明，接受癌症治疗的儿童中，有相当一部分人在治疗后的心理社会适应方面遇到困难，包括创伤后应激障碍、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的最大负面影响以及接受必要但往往是痛苦的治疗方面取得的成功有限。目前的研究旨在检验一种假设，即儿童治疗后的适应既与他们的情绪调节能力有关，也与影响他们如何处理和应对强烈负面情绪的育儿过程有关。迷走神经张力是一种情绪调节的生理指标，已被证明可以缓冲儿童免受环境中应激源的负面心理影响。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。这项拟议的研究将使用多方法、多信息者、横断面设计来测试150名儿童迷走神经张力和适应能力的关系，其中一半将是急性淋巴细胞性白血病的幸存者。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后果之间关系的潜在缓冲。了解癌症治疗后情绪调节能力和适应能力之间的关系，可以帮助建立新的、有效的基于经验的干预措施，这些干预措施侧重于(1)教孩子在痛苦时如何从生理上自我安慰，(2)教父母帮助孩子管理情绪。

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.