Background When a child is given a diagnosis of cancer, the impact reverberates through the family unit. Siblings, in particular, experience an accumulation of distress. Siblings of children with cancer can experience both short- and long-term difficulties in psychosocial and physical functioning, and professional bodies have called for interventions targeted at their needs. Objective The aim of this study was to describe outcomes, core components, and general characteristics of effective interventions intended to support sibling well-being and psychosocial health in pediatric oncology. Methods MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched in September 2019 and July 2020. Studies were included if they focused on interventions for siblings or family in pediatric cancer, had quantitative data to describe the effect or impact of the intervention, and were published in English. Included studies underwent quality appraisal, data extraction, and data synthesis. Results Twenty articles fit inclusion criteria. Most interventions focused on 6- to 18-year-old siblings within a group setting. Most were theory based. Group format with multiple sessions was the most common approach. The most frequently assessed outcomes were depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and health-related quality of life. Conclusions Understanding outcomes, core components, and characteristics of effective interventions is important to translate sibling-support interventions into standard practice. Such considerations are important in delivering equitable family-centered care to siblings of children with cancer. Implications for Practice As institutions create mechanisms to support siblings, it may be important to target high-risk siblings initially, partner with community resources, attend to underrecognized populations of siblings, and more fully incorporate family into sibling support.
Objective:This review examines studies on mindfulness based programs used with adolescents at-risk for poor future outcomes such as not graduating from high school and living in poverty.Method:The keywords used include mindfulness, at-risk and adolescents in each database to search CINAHL (10 items: 2 book reviews, 3 Dissertations, and 5 research articles), Medline EBSCO (15 research articles), and PubMed (10 research articles). Only primary research articles published between 2009- 2015 in English on mindfulness and at-risk adolescents were included for the most current evidence.Results:Few studies (n= 11) were found that investigate mindfulness in at-risk adolescents. These studies used various mindfulness programs (n = 7) making it difficult to generalize findings for practice. Only three studies were randomized control trials focusing mostly on male students with low socioeconomic status and existing mental health diagnoses.Conclusion:There is a relationship between health behaviors and academic achievement. Future research studies on mindfulness based interventions need to expand to its effects on academic achievement in those youth at-risk to decrease problematic behaviors and improve their ability to be successful adults.
Background Risky behaviors are related to poor outcomes among young adolescents. This study piloted a mindfulness based intervention, Learning 2 Breath Mindfulness Curriculum, focusing on the feasibility of programming and intervention effects on coping, affect, and trait mindfulness among at-risk adolescents. Further, the mindfulness based intervention was compared to an attention intervention. Methods Sixth-grade level female students in a boarding school for at-risk youth randomly allocated to either the mindfulness intervention ( n = 12) or an attention intervention ( n = 11) for six weeks. Outcomes (i.e., primary coping, positive affect, and trait mindfulness) were assessed before and after the interventions. Results Intervention groups did not differ in demographics or outcomes at baseline. Twenty-two of 23 (95.7%) registered participants attended all of the sessions. Participants completed 86.4% of study tools. Separate repeated measures ANOVAs revealed no significant interactions among group and time for primary coping, positive affect, or mindfulness. However, positive affect did increase [ F (1, 17) = 10.675, p = 0.005, partial η 2 = 0.39] over time for both groups and there was a slight increase in trait mindfulness over time (although not statistically significant; p = 0.095, partial η 2 = 0.155]). Primary coping did not change with time. Conclusion The mindfulness intervention utilized in the present study exhibited feasibility in this population. Although preliminary, mindfulness based interventions may contribute to positive affect among at-risk youth in a boarding school. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
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