Social Research Portfolio
The Children's Cancer Foundation (CCF) conducts research studies periodically on various psychosocial topics related to childhood cancer, to help us as service providers to plan future programmess. These findings from the studies also help us cater to the needs of our clients. In house evaluations and needs assessments also help shed light on gaps in service delivery.

The goals of conducting social research include initiating and embarking on projects that will aid in service delivery. Subsumed under this broad goal, CCF also aims to implement, consolidate and integrate local and international research finds in service delivery. We also collaborate with other organisations and tertiary institutions to conduct childhood cancer related research.

At times we have requests from the Social Work and Psychology Department of the National University of Singapore to facilitate 1 or 2 students' research projects. Here are the research projects which involve our clients, conducted by our research officer and students from NUS.

If you would like to participate in future projects or have suggestions on the kind of research topics you would like us to explore, please feel free to contact our Research Officer, Ms N. Aaqilah Latiff at 6394 1659 or email her at aaqilah_kkhsw@ccf.org.sg

Research undertaken in 2004
1. Research by students:

The Impact of Childhood Cancer: Siblings Adaptation and the Cancer experience

Major findings:

• The older the ill child, the less positive the sibling adaptation.
• The more positive the sibling perceptions of the cancer experience, the more positive the sibling adaptation.
• When parent-sibling communication was more open, the sibling perceptions of the cancer experience were also more positive.
• The less negative the sibling perceptions, the less worried the sibling was about his/her own health, and lesser feelings of depression and anger.
• The face to face interviews conducted by the staff team revealed that social support was important in helping siblings adapt to the negative changes and problems caused by cancer diagnosis.

Effects of Sibling Adjustment, Relationship and Perception on Children with cancer

Major findings:

• A better adjusted sibling will have lower levels of aggressive behaviors.
• Sibling's negative feelings towards cancer experience were associated with lower levels of own adjustment.
• Levels of closeness in sibling relationships and interaction patterns affect the child-sibling adjustment.

"Evaluation of Public Education Talks" for primary and secondary school students.

This study was presented in the Oxford Symposium for School Based Family Counseling and published in the proceedings from the symposium.

Major findings:

• Medical knowledge increased after the talk.
• Talks most effective for younger age group.
• Peer acceptance as a whole increased.

Effect of Public Cancer Education Talks on Peer Acceptance in Primary School Children

Major findings:

• Both cancer understanding and peer acceptance were found to increase after the talk.
• Ill child with physical deformities was less accepted by peers before and after the talk.
• This indicates that the talk was not sufficient in countering prejudices and fears based on physical appearance.

Impact of Childhood Illness on Siblings - Factors related to more positive adjustment of Siblings

This project is due for completion in March 2005.

2. Collaborative research by the Children's Cancer Foundation and KK Women's & Children's Hospital's Oncology Pharmacist

Perceptions of Caregivers and Paediatric Oncologists on Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Paediatric Oncology Patients.

The paper was accepted in journal series entitled 'SIOP Pediatric Blood and Cancer' and poster, and presented at the "International Society of Paediatric Oncology" SIOP Congress in September 2004 held in Norway.