Attitudes, Perceptions, and Family Coping in Pediatric Cancer and Childhood Diabetes Valsamma Eapen, a AbdelAzim Mabrouk, b and Salem Bin-Othman b a Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, b School Health Services, UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates The importance of psychosocial factors in psychological adjustment and coping in children with cancer and their families is well recognized. In this study, parental atti- tudes, children’s self-perceptions, and families’ coping were studied in 38 children with leukemia, 30 children with juvenile diabetes, and 30 control subjects. Children with cancer scored themselves more negatively than their parents on all the subscales ex- cept scholastic competence, while children with diabetes scored negatively in the area of athletic competence. With regard to family coping, parental hope as well as social and family communication were the most important factors that contributed to better coping in children with leukemia, while parental education and health awareness were integral to better coping in children with diabetes. Awareness of family coping and un- derstanding the domains of self-competence and self-worth, which are vulnerable in children with cancer, can help healthcare providers to target these issues and to offer appropriate psychosocial intervention. Key words: childhood cancer; diabetes mellitus; psychosocial factors; self-perceptions; family coping Introduction Psychosocial research in recent decades has significantly advanced our understanding of the psychosocial issues in the context of pediatric cancer 1 and diabetes. 2 Survival rates of chil- dren with cancer have improved dramatically over the last two decades. In keeping with this remarkable medical achievement, psychosocial research has changed from helping patients and families deal with issues related to death and dying to issues of health promotion interven- tion for cancer survivors. In an international comparison of contributions to psychosocial research and survivors, Last and colleagues 3 showed significant descriptive differences de- Address for correspondence: Valsamma Eapen, PhD., FRCPsych, FRANZCP, Professor and Chair of Infant, Child & Adolescent Psychi- atry, University of New South Wales, ICAMHS—Mental Health Centre, L1, Liverpool Hospital, Elizabeth Street, NSW 2170, Australia. Voice: +61 2 9616 4245; fax: +61 2 9601 2773. v.eapen@unsw.edu.au pending on the place of origin of the study. This and other reports suggest that these issues vary from one culture to another, hence the need to study these factors locally in each community. Subjects and Methods The subjects were ascertained through a ter- tiary referral pediatric cancer unit (children with leukemia) and the Central School Health Clinic (children with diabetes and control sub- jects) in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE). They were evaluated using the Arabic version of the Harter’s Self Perception Profile for Chil- dren (SPPC) 4 and the parallel parent version. SPPC, a self-report inventory for measuring perceived competence in children consists of a subscale of global self-worth indicating the gen- eral sense of self-esteem as well as five specific domains, namely scholastic competence, so- cial acceptance, athletic competence, physical Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1138: 47–49 (2008). C  2008 New York Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1196/annals.1414.008 47