The Small Wish Foundation, has conducted a study whose objective has been evaluate the positive emotions that generate the fulfillment of a desire and changes in the psychological well-being of children with chronic diseases or poor prognosis.
The work has been developed together with a Research Team of the Complutense University of Madrid, the support of the Official College of Psychologists of Madrid and the financing of the Lafourcade Ponce Foundation. We also wanted to evaluate the welfare of the family environment. Little Desire was born in 2000 with the corporate purpose of realize the wishes of children with chronic diseases or poor prognosis offering them mood support.
The study has been carried out in 100 children treated in different hospitals with Pediatric Unit and their respective families
With the results in hand, it can be affirmed that fulfilling wishes to children with serious diseases generates important benefits on their well-being, extending these favorable effects also on their parents. In addition, we can conclude that these changes not only occur immediately and transiently, but extend even several months later.
'I wish to be a raccoon keeper'I would like to highlight that the appearance of these changes favors a more positive assessment of their subjective health.
These positive emotions endure over time: 97% of the children who have participated in the Study affirm that the experience served to encourage them in bad times and 81% affirm that their fighting spirit has increased.
The study's executive report makes some Recommendations to the Small Wish Foundation. For example It is suggested to systematically motivate the implementation of post-wish activities within the family.
For example, strategies can be adopted to remember the day of desire, or to promote positive emotions (write a letter of thanks); and even carry out activities that are related to the particular desire (if a child wanted to be a scientist, simple research activities could be promoted)
In addition, we know that these effects are amplified when the experience of desire day is more positive. Undoubtedly, having the testimony of doctors takes on special importance in this study since con his report we confirm this improvement in children who fulfill their desire and also, largely attribute these changes, especially in the emotional field, to the desire.
All the results obtained, and the conclusions of the study, are relevant, because Literature has extensively shown that these wellness variables have repercussions on physical health.. It has been observed that the experience of this desire has important repercussions on various domains of perceived quality of life, such as the quality of daily functioning, school activities and perceived health.
Images | Small Wish Fountain Foundation | Small Wish Foundation In Peques and More | "How to educate emotions" is a notebook with practical information and applications that puts the child at the center of interest
