title: Goal adjustment strategies operationalised and empirically examined in adolescents with cancer.
abstract: Adolescents facing cancer may need to adjust their personal life goals. Theories identified several goal adjustment strategies, but their use has not been tested. Therefore, this study operationalises goal adjustment strategies and examines their use. Adolescent cancer patients listed their goals 3 and 12 months post-diagnosis. Goals received scores on five goal characteristics: life domain, level of abstraction, importance, attainability and effort. Results showed that adolescents with cancer (N = 30, mean age: 14.2 years, 60% female) used four of five strategies described in theory, while one additional strategy was found. These findings suggest that adolescents with cancer use goal adjustment strategies as measured by goal characteristics over time.
authors.affiliation: University of Groningen, The Netherlands m.janse01@umcg.nl.
authors.forename: Moniek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Janse
authors.affiliation: University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sulkers
authors.affiliation: University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wim Je
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Tissing
authors.affiliation: University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Robbert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sanderman
authors.affiliation: University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mirjam Ag
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sprangers
authors.affiliation: University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Adelita V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Ranchor
authors.affiliation: University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Joke
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fleer
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D009426:Netherlands; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: adjustment; adolescence; cancer; goals; strategies