ABSTRACT
A reasonable criticism that can be levelled at much of the psychological research in chronic childhood disease is that it lacks a clear theoretical basis. If one looks at the key journals that publish research in this area (for example, the Journal of Pediatric Psychology), it is evident that there is a wealth of studies, all employing a variety of assessment tools, with different populations, with different aims in mind. An overriding issue, therefore, is to integrate this diverse literature theoretically and to be able to utilise this applied research in the clinical setting.
