The effectiveness of ambition development program among children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Abstract

Background Ambition, the strong desire to achieve our goals, develop as children grow and interact. Objectives To assess the effectiveness of institutional created ‘Ambition Level Development Program’ (ALDP) in a sample of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Methodology Ten children with ALL were enrolled and divided into an experimental group who received the ALDP training and a control group. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and nonverbal intelligence score were evaluated, as well as assessment of their level of ambition before and after receiving ALDP training. Results At the baseline assessment, both the experimental and control groups showed comparable scores of different items of the level of ambition scale (P = 0.8, 0.5, 0.9, 0.8 for the four items: optimism, the ability to set goals, accept all that is new, and endure failure, respectively), as well as for the total level of ambition score (P = 0.8). Among the experimental group, there was a significant improvement in the level of ambition scores after implementing ALDP training (P = 0.04 in each of the ability to set goals, accept all that is new, and endure failure). This improvement was not affected by gender. The increase in the level of ambition score was sustained after a post/follow-up period (P>0.5). Conclusion There is a positive effect of implementing the newly designed ALDP on the ambition levels in children with ALL.