2003 Volume 69 Issue 6 Pages 220-232
Children and adolescents with cancer experience multiple stressors, evertheless some function well or are "resilient." Focusing on resilience in childhood cancer patients and understanding why and how resilience develops during the cancer experience is of great value . This knowledge may provide information to health care professionals to facilitate intervention for promoting resilience and improving quality of life in adolescents with cancer . The purpose of thisarticle is to review the literature and to develop conceptual understanding related to resilience in adolescents with cancer. The literature review includes the history of resilience in childhood cancer patients, resilience as defined by Rutter, and a resilience model of adolescents with cancer. Also, coping strategies for hospitalization, coping strategies for cancer, and the self-sustaining process in adolescents with cancer are presented. The results of the literature review suggest that Hinds and Martin's the self-sustaining process is an useful model for understanding why and how adolescents with cancer develop their resilience . This model should also be focused on not only the developmental stages but also the cultural differences such as telling thename of disease and the length of hospitalization .