Coping and Post Traumatic Distress in Children and Adolescents During Cancer Follow-up Care

Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC-A) is a self report questionnaire that assess children and adolscents' post-traumatic symptoms with 5 clinical scales: anxiety, depression, anger, post-traumatic distress, dissociation (the complete version TSCC includes sexual interest scale). It can be filled out by children and adolescents aged from 8 to 17. Each patient has to read a list of thoughts, feelings and behaviors and to rate their frequency on a 4-point Likert scale (1= never; 5= always).

Coping Responsing Inventory (youth version; CRI-YOUTH): self report questionnaire that identify and monitor adolescents' coping strategies to manage stress. The CRI-youth assess coping strategies of youth, aged from 12 to 18, using 8 scales: these scales cover the areas of approach coping styles (Logical Analysis, Positive Reappraisal, Seeking Guidance and Support, and Problem Solving) and avoidant coping styles (Cognitive Avoidance, Acceptance or Resignation, Seeking Alternative Rewards, and Emotional Discharge).

CRI-YOUTH is rated on a 4-point Likert scale (1= never; 5= always), with T-points from 20 to 80+ with higher scores indicating a higher usage of a coping strategy.

Each patient had to read a list of sentences about the cognitive and behavioral responses to cope with a stressful situation and to rate their use on a 4-point Likert scale (1= never; 5= always).

Children's Coping Strategies Checklist-Revision1 (CCSC-R1) is a self report questionnaire that identify children's coping strategies to manage stress. It contains 54 items organized in 13 subscales, loading five dimensions: problem-focused coping and positive cognitive restructuring, distraction coping strategies, avoidance coping strategies, and support-seeking strategies. Both problem-focused coping and positive cognitive restructuring are considered dimensions of active coping. Children request to assess how frequently they usually adopt the coping strategies described in the item on a 4-point Likert scale (1= never; 5= always).For each scale and subscale, the score is the mean of scores of the scale items.

The questionnaire includes a section devoted to demographics (i.e., gender, present age, age at the time of diagnosis, nationality, etc.) and to clinical data (eg. type of disease, treatments, other traumatic events, etc.). Only the parents' version contains the section related to personal and clinical data. An additional section aims to explore the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of child, adolescents and parents in the main moments of the patient's disease (communication of diagnosis, treatment, follow-up) through open and closed questions.

Data are qualitative, no scoring, and will be helpful for cathegorization during statistical analyses.