Academic self-regulation and its relationship with Sternberg's thinking styles, academic achievement, and course of disease in adolescents with cancer

Context: Adolescents with cancer are involved with a disabling disease that affects their various educational dimensions.

Aim: The present study aimed at determining academic self-regulation and its relationship with Sternberg’s thinking styles, academic achievement, and course of disease in adolescents with cancer.

Setting and Design: The current study is a cross-sectional study Indeed, the participants were selected via simple random sampling method in the academic year of 2016–2017.

Material and Methods: This study was carried out on 269 adolescents with cancer who were covered by Mahak Hospital and Rehabilitation Complex.

Statistical Analysis: Data analysis was performed by descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, and mean with standard deviation) and analytical statistics (multiple regression coefficients and path analysis approach).

Results: From the thinking styles, the legislative thinking style (b =0.301, P = 0.001) made the highest contribution to the prediction of academic self-regulation. With regard to the other research variables, the grade point average could significantly predict academic self-regulation (b =0.301, P = 0.001). However, the duration of cancer could not predict academic self-regulation (P> 0.05).

Conclusion: The adolescent cancer patients with the legislative thinking style were more talented in learning self-regulation than the other students. In this regard, it is possible to take measures with regard to the identification of such students in schools and other educational centers in order to lay higher emphasis on the teaching of academic self-regulation to them.