In order to diminish the negative effects of hospitalization, the child who has cancer needs to adapt herself/himself by using adequate coping strategies. Focused on the design of an assessment tool for the hospitalization coping strategies, 28 children (6 to 12) registered on the Oncology Service from a public hospital in Vitória, Espírito Santo, were submitted to the following instruments: coping Hospitalization Assessment Instrument, with 41 pictures, divided by sets: Set A: Facing hospitalization and Set B: Playing in the hospital. The instrument adequacy results have shown a percentage of 88.4% e 94.6% of adequacy in the pictures from Set A and Set B, respectively. The instrument responses results have revealed a larger tendency to the optimistic pattern of coping answers (play, talk, take medicine and pray), than to the non-optimistic (hide, fight, blame yourself, blackmail). The instrument was adequate to the psychological comprehension and attendance for the hospitalized children.
coping strategies; children hospitalization; cancer in children
