Adolescent and young adult survivors of cancer: relationship between resilience and post-traumatic growth

This study aims to determine the difference in post-traumatic growth (PTG) and resilience scores of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors according to their age, gender, and treatment duration, and also the relationship between PTG and resilience. This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in the pediatric hematology and oncology polyclinic of a university hospital. The study consisted of 78 AYAs in the 12-25 age group whose cancer treatment had been completed. AYA survivors were requested to complete the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-28 (CYRM-28) and the demographic questionnaire. Pearson correlation and regression analysis were used to determine the relationship between PTG and resilience. 69.2% of the AYAs participating in the study were 16-25 years old, 60.3% were male, and 55.1% had high school education. Leukemias (39.7%), lymphomas (33.3%) and solid tumors (10.3%) were found to be the top three diagnoses of AYAs. It was found that 46.3% of the AYAs had received chemotherapy and radiotherapy and 67.9% had been treated for more than 1 year. The mean scale scores of AYAs were 85.83 +/- 14.71 for PTGI and 123.03 +/- 10.72 for CYRM-28. A high level of positive correlation was found between PTGI mean scores and CYRM-28 mean scores. It was determined that the PTGI score of AYAs increased as their CYRM-28 score increased.