24th European Health Psychology Conference

1-4 september 2010, Romania

Deadline for Early Registration: 15 May 2010

Abstract

  • Title -Thisshould not exceed 20 words.
  • Author
  • Body Text - Thisshould not exceed 200 words.

Please use the following format:

The text of the abstract should include:

  • OBJECTIVES. A statement of the purpose of the study (preferably inonesentence).
  • METHODS. A brief description of the methods used in the study.
  • RESULTS. A summary of the results obtained in sufficient detail.
  • CONCLUSIONS. Theoretical and/or practical implications of thestudy.

Track name under which the abstract is being submitted
Conference Tracks

  1. Self-Regulation, including Illness Perceptions
  2. Contributions related to goal or self-regulation theory, including the common sense model

The influence of children’s and parents’ illness perceptions on paediatrics cancer patients’ quality of life

Fonseca, M., Missotten, P., Etienne, A.M., Dupuis, G., Lemétayer, F. & Spitz, E.

OBJECTIVES: The current study aims to explore children’s with cancer and parents’ illness perceptions and their impact on children’s generic and modular quality of life (GQoL/MQoL).METHODS: Children with cancer aged from 8 to 12 years old (N=39) and their parents (N=39) completed the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire(Broadbent et al.,2006) and a socio-demographic questionnaire. The Quality of Life Systemic Inventory for Children - Module for Cancer (Missotten et al., 2008)was also administered to children. RESULTS: Concerning dimensions of cancer perceptions, “consequences” reported by children and “personal control” by parents are significant predictors of the children’s GQoL: they explain 42% (β=.66;p=.00) and 12% (β=-.32; p=.05) of the variance, respectively.Children’s perceptions about illness “consequences”and parents’perceptions aboutillness “implications” aresignificant predictors of the children’s MQoL, explaining 52% (β=.73; p=.00) and 11% (β=.37; p=.02) of the variance,respectively.CONCLUSIONS: Findings support thehypothesis that children’s and parents’ cancer perceptions may have a different impact on children’s QoL. A better knowledge about the influenceof children’s and parents’ illness perceptions on QoL contributesto design intervention to promote QoL among paediatric cancer patients.