Social skills and psychological adjustment of child and adolescent cancer survivors

Social skills and psychological adjustment for survivors of childhood cance r were investigated. Cancer survivors included 42 children and adolescents ranging in age at evaluation from 6 to 18 years with a mean age of 13.1 yea rs. Measures included teacher and parent ratings of social skills and adjus tment and parent ratings of family functioning. The findings showed that so cial skills and psychological adjustment as rated by both parents and teach ers were primarily associated with academic functioning. In addition, famil y cohesiveness was found to account for nearly one third of the variance in survivors' adjustment when rated by teachers, and length of time off treat ment accounted for a significant percentage of the variance in children's a djustment when rated by parents. The findings underscore the importance of a multi-informant approach to the assessment of psychological adjustment of pediatric cancer survivors and demonstrate the role of learning difficulti es and family functioning in influencing social skills and adjustment for t hese children and adolescents. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.