A total of 1 16 long-term survivors of childhood malignancies were interviewed by a psychologist and a psychiatrist, who independently assigned adjustment ratings to each patient. Semistructured interviews determined how soon after the initial diagnosis survivors learned they had cancer and whether they had been told by a parent or physician or had learned of the diagnosis in some other way. Good psychosocial adjustment was associated with patients’ early knowledge of the diagnosis. A high percentage of the survivors, their parents, and siblings felt that the cancer diagnosis should be shared with the child early on.
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Slavin et al. (1982) studied this question.