Evaluation of Emotional and Behavioral Problems in School-Age Children of Patients with Breast Cancer

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine the emotional and behavioral problems among schoolage children of mothers with breast cancer (BC) and the difficulties they experienced during the mothers’ illness.METHODSThe participants included 40 children and adolescents of patients with BC and age- and sex-matched 40healthy controls between the ages of 6 and 17 years. The study group filled out a sociodemographic dataform that was prepared by the researchers and evaluated the demographic data and psychosocial effectsof maternal cancer on children. The parents of all participants filled out the Strengths and DifficultiesQuestionnaire (SDQ), Parent Form to determine the emotional and behavioral problems in children.RESULTSConduct problems, attention deficit and hyperactivity, and total difficulty scores of the SDQ were significantly higher in children of mothers with BC (p