Childhood Cancer and the Interplay between Illness, Self-evaluation and Academic Experiences

This paper addresses a study whose objective was to broaden our knowledge about how cancer and treatment affect the academic development of pupils at school and their academic self - concept and self - esteem. Eight school children (whose treatment for various cancer diagnoses had been completed), their parents, teachers and health personnel answered retrospective, semi - structured interviews. The interviews were recorded on tape and later transcribed verbatim, categorised and analysed using NUD*IST qualitative data analysis software. The results demonstrated that pupils with cancer have a clear desire to value their own academic ability, that they strive to master academic requirements in spite of the illness - related restrictions, that school proved to be an important self - concept area for the cancer - ridden children and that their self - esteem is greatly influenced by their evaluation of own academic status.