Copyright
©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Pediatr. May 8, 2016; 5(2): 206-211
Published online May 8, 2016. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v5.i2.206
Published online May 8, 2016. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v5.i2.206
Systematic review of character development and childhood chronic illness
Gary R Maslow, Departments of Pediatrics, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, United States
Gary R Maslow, Sherika N Hill, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, United States
Author contributions: Maslow GR and Hill SN contributed equally to this work; Maslow GR and Hill SN designed and performed the review; Maslow GR and Hill SN analyzed the literature and wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Maslow and Dr. Hill declare no conflict of interest regarding this manuscript: “Systematic review of character development and childhood chronic illness.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Gary R Maslow, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Duke University School of Medicine, DUMC 2906, Durham, NC 27710, United States. gary.maslow@duke.edu
Telephone: +1-919-7975363 Fax: +1-919-6684496
Received: August 28, 2015
Peer-review started: August 28, 2015
First decision: December 4, 2015
Revised: January 9, 2016
Accepted: January 29, 2016
Article in press: January 31, 2016
Published online: May 8, 2016
Processing time: 109 Days and 16.8 Hours
Peer-review started: August 28, 2015
First decision: December 4, 2015
Revised: January 9, 2016
Accepted: January 29, 2016
Article in press: January 31, 2016
Published online: May 8, 2016
Processing time: 109 Days and 16.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: This study reviewed empirical evidence on character development among youth with chronic medical conditions. Only three quantitative studies were found that met the review inclusion criteria. Different measures of character were evaluated including moral reasoning, moral concept, and character virtues. Collectively, the findings were not generalizable and were too divergent to support or contradict each other. The strengths and weaknesses of the emerging literature offer insights into how best to design future studies on character development among youth with chronic illnesses.