Psychological adjustment of children with cancer as compared with healthy children: a meta-analysis.

Childhood cancer is a life-threatening disease and the cause of great stress for children who suffer from its diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study was to verify, through meta-analytical tools, whether children in active treatment for cancer differ in their psychological adjustment from healthy children. Ten studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria for the meta-analytic approach. A fixed effects model did not yield significant results, suggesting that there is no evidence for a difference in psychological adjustment between ill and healthy children, inasmuch as the former seem to adjust as well as the latter. Some methodological aspects are also considered, including issues related to the definition of psychological adjustment and its operationalisation and to the relative scarcity of published articles in this particular realm. Moreover, suggestions for future studies are discussed.