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Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to know the trend of family resilience in adolescents with cancer during the first year of newly diagnosed.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to understand the correlates of family resilience in adolescents with cancer.
Methods: The panel study is a family-based approach. Convenience sampling is used to recruit participants who are adolescents with newly diagnosed cancer and 12 to 20 years old. Additionally, participants include these cancer adolescents’ parents and a sibling who is also an adolescent. Data are repeatedly collected three times (after diagnosis 3 months, 6 months and 9 months) by a structured questionnaire.
Results: The study participants included 33 families. The findings that were demonstrated by hierarchical linear regression analysis included: 1) family resilience did not change over time; 2) individual resilience of each family member was protectors of family resilience (γ = 0.30, p < .001); 3) perceived of stress was a risk factor of family resilience (γ = -0.27, p < .001); 4) family resilience was a correlate of family function (γ = 0.90, p < .001). The results that were identified by Generalized Estimating Equation(GEE) analysis included: 1) Neither family resilience nor individual resilience changed over time; 2) For parents, level of perceived stress at post-diagnosis 6 months was less than at post-diagnosis 3 months (for fathers, B = -0.18, p < .01; for mothers, B = -0.25, p < .05); 3) For sibling, level of perceived stress at post-diagnosis 9 months was less than at post-diagnosis 3 months (B = -0.27, p < .001); 4) For adolescents with cancer, level of perceived stress did not change over time.
Conclusion: These results suggest that healthcare professionals begin to foster the family resilience in adolescents about 3 months after diagnosis of cancer by strengthening resilience in each family member and managing their stress.