Self and nurses' perceptions of adolescent boys with leukemia: An exploration based on the psychology of personal constructs

• Main Author: Tsaguris, Chrysann Angeliki, 1952-
• Other Authors: Lauver, Philip J.
• Language: en_US
• Published: The University of Arizona. 1988
• Subjects: Leukemia in children.; Leukemia > Psychological aspects.; Teenage boys > Health and hygiene.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/276705

Literature on psychological aspects of childhood cancer has treated adolescents as a homogeneous group, while revealing little about their individuality. This study's purpose was to systematically explore similarities and differences in adolescent boys with leukemia and to explore nurses' perceptions of the boys. Participants were recruited from a pediatric oncology clinic; the boys were 13, 14, and 18 years old and were selected based on age, active treatment for leukemia, and rapport with the investigator. To elicit constructs used by each boy to interpret feelings, the study employed a variant of psychologist George Kelly's technique for eliciting unique organizing principles (personal constructs) by which Kelly theorized people interpret experience (1955). The boys rated themselves on their personal constructs; their nurses also rated them on the constructs. Results reveal distinctive differences and certain similarities in the boys' personal constructs. Nurses' ratings of each patient differ in varying degrees from his own.