Department of Psychology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Psychooncology. 2020 Aug;29(8):1288-1295. doi: 10.1002/pon.5417. Epub 2020 Jun 7.
Social interaction and peer relationships are critical for development, especially for adolescents and young adults (AYA). Cancer treatment may disrupt social functioning and impact quality of life. Prior research into AYA social functioning has primarily been qualitative in nature or assessed via broad measures of functioning. Given the multi-dimensional nature of social functioning, and its importance for AYA, a person-centered approach to analyses is needed.
AYA survivors of childhood cancer, ages 13 to 23 (n = 192, 51% male) and at least 1 year post-treatment (M = 7.35 ± 4.18 years post), completed measures to assess perceived social functioning, social support, and positive and negative affect. Caregivers also completed a measure of social functioning. Latent profile analysis was used to empirically derive profiles of perceived social functioning using the self-perception profile for adolescents (SPPA).
A 3-class solution provided the best fit to the data: 58.9% average, 33.7% high, and 7.5% low functioning. The average group reported mean scores that were similar to normative values available in the SPPA manual. Demographic and medical factors were unrelated to class membership. Social support and positive/negative affect differed significantly by class; caregiver-report of social functioning did not.
Overall, the majority of AYA survivors of childhood cancer are doing well socially, with perceived adequate social functioning associated with both high levels of social support as well as greater perceptions of positive affect. Future work is needed to elucidate longitudinal trajectories of social functioning, as well as to identify and intervene with those survivors who are struggling.
社交互动和同伴关系对发展至关重要，尤其是对青少年和年轻人（AYA）。癌症治疗可能会破坏社交功能并影响生活质量。先前对 AYA 社交功能的研究主要是定性的，或者通过广泛的功能衡量标准进行评估。鉴于社交功能的多维性质及其对 AYA 的重要性，需要采用以人为中心的方法进行分析。
13 至 23 岁（51%为男性）且至少在癌症治疗后 1 年（M = 7.35±4.18 年后）的儿童癌症幸存者 AYA 患者（n = 192）完成了评估感知社交功能、社会支持以及积极和消极情绪的量表。看护人还完成了一项社交功能量表。使用青少年自我知觉量表（SPPA），通过潜在剖面分析对感知社交功能进行实证衍生剖面。
3 类解决方案为数据提供了最佳拟合：58.9%为平均水平，33.7%为高功能，7.5%为低功能。平均组的平均得分与 SPPA 手册中可用的正常数值相似。人口统计学和医疗因素与类别无关。社会支持和积极/消极情绪因类别而异；看护人报告的社交功能则不然。
总体而言，大多数儿童癌症的 AYA 幸存者在社交方面表现良好，他们感知到的社交功能良好与较高水平的社会支持以及更高的积极情绪感知有关。需要进一步研究来阐明社交功能的纵向轨迹，并确定和干预那些挣扎的幸存者。
