Comparison of resilience in adolescent survivors of brain tumors and healthy adolescents

BACKGROUND:: Resilience is essential for the psychological adjustment of adolescents experiencing difficulty. Comparing differences in resilience between adolescent survivors of brain tumors and healthy adolescents may help identify factors related to resilience in adolescents. OBJECTIVE:: The purpose of this study was to clarify how illness impacts the normative development of adolescent survivors of brain tumors by comparing them to healthy adolescents in terms of resilience and how it is affected by various health problems. METHODS:: This cross-sectional, case-control study used convenience sampling to recruit 13- to 18-year-old adolescent survivors of brain tumors and healthy adolescents matched by school level, gender, and living area. Data were collected by structured questionnaires. RESULTS:: The sample included 60 adolescent survivors and 120 healthy adolescents. Participants in both groups were predominantly male adolescents (63.3%) and junior high school students (55%). The 2 groups did not differ significantly in resilience, but survivors without emotional problems had a higher mean resilience score than did healthy adolescents and survivors with emotional problems (F = 8.65, P < .01). CONCLUSIONS:: Our results identify emotional problems as a risk factor for resilience in both adolescent survivors of brain tumors and healthy adolescents. In addition, the impact of emotional problems on resilience was more severe in brain tumor survivors than in healthy adolescents. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:: Our results suggest that pediatric oncology nurses design interdisciplinary school-based interventions to reduce the impact of emotional problems on resilience in both healthy adolescents and those who survived brain tumors.