摘要：Abstract Introduction Childhood cancer, as one of the life threatening and most serious health problems, considerably influences the cognitive and social functions of children with cancer and their families; however, surprisingly enough, these children are quite well compatible and even emotionally function better than their peers. Method This issue still remains as a mystery. In this study, the ability of ignoring negative stimuli as a technique of emotion regulation is investigated in children with cancer. For this purpose, 78 children (33 girls and 45 boys aged 3 to 12 years) with pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 89 healthy children (52 girls and 37 boys aged 3 to 12 years) took part in this study. At the first stage, a number of positive, negative and neutral pictures were displayed to children. At the second stage, they were asked to identify these pictures from among a collection of these and other pictures. Result Data analysis indicated that children with cancer, compared with healthy children, could recognize more positive images than negative ones. Conclusion Accordingly, children with cancer, through the neglect of negative stimuli, improve their tolerance, and demonstrate dramatically good adjustment.
关键词：children with cancer;emotional regulation;attentional shifting;positive and neutral stimuli
