The purpose of this study was to understand the phenomenon of hand holding as a coping strategy used by adolescents to deal with treatment-related pain. The convenience sample consisted of 20 adolescents whose ages were 11 to 19 years: 10 had cancer and 10 had renal disease (this served as the comparison group). Using a descriptive design, a semistructured interview was conducted with each adolescent. To supplement and support interview data, structured observations were conducted as adolescents underwent painful treatments (eg, blood draws, shunt placement, peripheral chemotherapy, lumbar punctures, and bone marrow aspirations). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative analytic techniques similar to those delineated by Strauss and Corbin. The results of this study indicated that subjects in both the cancer and the renal disease group perceived hand holding to be a very effective coping strategy in ameliorating treatment-related pain. Overwhelmingly the patients preferred to hold their mother's hand. When the mother was unavailable, they preferred to hold a specific nurse's hand. Hand holding functioned to reduce tension associated with impending treatments, as a source of distraction, and as a source of security. Accordingly, adolescents' subjective experience of treatment-related pain was reduced when they felt more secure, less tense, and were distracted.

Whereas reminiscence‐based interventions that focus on reducing depression and pessimism have been shown to be effective, most studies have employed longer term treatments. There has also been a tendency for reminiscence‐based studies to focus on the benefits of reminiscence for older adults, with few studies involving younger adults. This study examined the efficacy of a one‐session reminiscence‐based intervention for reducing depressed affect and pessimism in younger adults. A total of 26 non‐clinical participants were administered a one‐to‐one guided interview in which they were encouraged to recall past problem‐solving successes, and the lessons learnt from these successes. Measures of affect, pessimism, and mastery were administered pre‐ and post‐interview. Levels of depressed affect, mastery, and pessimism significantly improved following the interview, compared with baseline levels. Changes in mastery were associated with changes in pessimism, but not with changes in depressed affect. This study suggests that a one‐session reminiscence‐based intervention may significantly contribute to the improvements in depressed affect, pessimism, and mastery in a younger cohort. It also suggests that the improvement in pessimism may be accounted for by improvement in self‐mastery.