Identifying Factors Associated With Post Traumatic Stress...

A descriptive correlational study by Kamibeppu et al. (2015) aimed to identify factors associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) among adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors (Kamibeppu et al., 2015). A cross-sectional quantitative design guided the study, where attending physicians recruited 185 subjects among the 12 chosen hospitals in Japan (Kamibeppu et al., 2015). The researchers developed the questionnaire from those previously used by the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), the British CCSS and the After Completion Therapy Clinic at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital (Kamibeppu et al., 2015, p. 533). After multiple regression analysis using the Japanese version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R-J) scale’s total score, the factors that are highly associated with PTSS among the AYA cancer survivors are family functioning, satisfaction with social support, being female, and interactions between family functioning, gend er, age and time of diagnosis (AGED) (Kamibeppu et al., 2015, p. 539-541). In conclusion, family functioning is the strongest predictor and helps moderate PTSS among AYA cancer survivors who have specific risk factors such as being female, older AGED and have late effects (Kamibeppu et al., 2015). Furthermore, the researchers state that it is critical for nurses to assess for family functioning routinely to help the AYA population cope better with PTSS (Kamibeppu et al., 2015). Kwak et al. (2013) conducted a