Pediatric Patients Treated for Leukemia Back to School: A Mixed-Method Analysis of Narratives about Daily Life and Illness Experience

• Main Authors: Marta Tremolada, Livia Taverna, Sabrina Bonichini, Marta Pillon, Alessandra Biffi, Maria Caterina Putti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Behavioral Sciences
• Subjects: pediatric leukemia; narratives; peer relationships; school re-entry; follow-up perceptions
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/10/7/107

In the last few years, more children and adolescents healed from leukemia go back to their daily life, even if they can show some psycho-social difficulties. The study adopted semi-structured interviews and a mixed-method approach to examine the narratives of 75 children and adolescents about their return to school post 2-years treatment for leukemia. The aims are to collect their illness experiences, to understand how they feel about school and daily routines and to identify the best socio-demographic and illness predictors of a good re-adaptation to school and daily life. The results show that by increasing age and when the pediatric patient have received a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, at the stop-therapy time, her/his perception about relationships at school and academic performance decrease, especially if his/her feelings about the disease and follow-up visits are negative.