Coping with Chronic Illness in Children and Their Families

From the perspective of the pediatric psychology literature, we review the extant literature related to stress and coping as it relates to children and adolescents with chronic conditions. To accomplish this, we present two models that have been employed by health psychologists to understand children’s ability to manage the stress of a chronic illness: stress and coping models and social ecological models. We also provide an overview of the impact of systems on child and family psychological adjustment as coping is impacted by families and peers. Since much of our understanding of the coping literature in children has emerged from studies of children with pediatric cancer and their families, we provide an overview of the coping literature among children and adolescents with cancer and their families as well as interventions designed to enhance coping in this population. Finally, we discuss methodological issues in this area of research and provide recommendations for future research efforts in this area.