Examining the Comprehensiveness of Psychological Services Provided to Students with Cancer Upon School Reentry

Abstract

With advancements in medicine, childhood cancer survival rates have increased in recent years. Consequently, many of these children return to school post-treatment at risk for cognitive, academic, and social-emotional difficulties, as a result of cancer and its treatment effects. During the re-entry process, school psychologists have a unique skill set that would allow them to identify educational needs and create interventions to help these students readapt to school and thrive both socially and academically. However, the existing literature is scarce concerning school psychologists' specific role during the school re-entry process and the factors that may influence the provision of re-entry services. This study concerns school psychologists and the factors that influence their likelihood of providing comprehensive re-entry services to students returning from cancer treatment. It investigates the effect of targeted cancer information on the provision of services, as well as the impact of demographic and cancer experience variables. In this study, 176 school psychologists were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: cancer information group (received facts on brain tumors and its educational impact) and no cancer information group (received no fact sheet). After being randomly assigned, participants were then directed to the following information: Demographic Questionnaire, Study Instructions and Hypothetical Case, Summary of Record Review, The Facts About Brain Tumors and Schooling (only Cancer Information group), Comprehensiveness of Psychological Reentry services for Children with Cancer Survey, and Experience with Cancer Questionnaire. There were three predictions: 1) school psychologists receiving cancer information will endorse more comprehensive re-entry services compared to school psychologists not receiving cancer information, 2) school psychologists’ demographic information will predict comprehensiveness of re-entry services, and 3) cancer knowledge and cancer experiences will predict comprehensiveness of re-entry services. The first prediction was analyzed using ANOVA, and the other predictions were analyzed separately using multiple regression. Findings from the ANOVA suggest that cancer information results in more re-entry services, albeit with a small effect size. Moreover, the multiple regression analysis for demographic variables did not predict the provision of re-entry services, whereas cancer-experience variables did predict re-entry services. The perceived importance of cancer knowledge was the best predictor of re-entry services among cancer-experience variables. Study limitations, implications for practice, and future directions for research are discussed.