Abstract
Master of Science in Psychology
Child and adolescent cancer has evolved from being an inevitably fatal disease to a life-threatening chronic disease, and thanks to the improvement of modern treatment methods more and more children are surviving childhood cancer. Despite this successful impact of medical intervention, little is known about the psychological aspects in adolescence that may contribute to the survival of cancer, or how the cancer experience may have impacted on children and adolescents’ psychological development.
The aim of this study therefore was to explore the differences between the character strengths of adolescents who have survived cancer with those of healthy adolescents in an attempt to understand one possibility of the psychological aspects that may be related to cancer survival.
As a foundation for understanding the psychological aspects of cancer survival, this study reviewed literature on the adolescent experience of cancer. Specifically the prevalence, types as well as the course of cancer were discussed. Furthermore, for the purpose of facilitating a better understanding of the cancer experience in adolescence, exploration of normal adolescent development as well as the psychological impact of cancer on adolescent development was addressed.
Following the exploration of this literature, it became apparent that information regarding the positive psychological aspects of the cancer experience in adolescence is limited. Specifically, attention was focused on character strengths as a possible positive outcome in the adolescent cancer experience. This was further understood in the context of positive psychology as an explanatory framework.
An ex post facto experimental design for independent groups was implemented and the two groups were matched in order to eliminate as many confounding variables as possible. Both groups, consisting of 21 adolescents each, completed the Values in Action Inventory for Youth (VIA-Youth) developed by Peterson and Seligman (2004). The experimental group also had an opportunity to write comments about the experience of having survived cancer.
Results indicated that no statistically significant differences were apparent between the character strengths of adolescents who have survived cancer and those of their healthy counterparts. Rather, the character strengths of both groups seemed to be quite similar. This may imply that the development of specific positive psychological traits during childhood is neither hindered nor enhanced by the experience of serious illness such as cancer. However, the written accounts of the cancer survivors made reference to the character strengths of hope, gratitude, spirituality, love, perspective and appreciation of beauty and excellence.