Coping, Positive Growth and Social Support in Turkish Women with Breast Cancer
Öz
The study aimed to explore the role of social support, coping strategies in fostering positive growth among Turkish women with breast cancer, utilizing a cross-sectional design. Involving 188 women from three hospital centers in Türkiye the research employed standardized measures such as The Ways of Coping Inventory and the Stress Related Growth Scale, alongside collecting socio-demographic and medical information. The results revealed significant positive correlations between social support, problem-solving, religious coping, and seeking social support coping strategies with positive growth (ps < 0.05). Conversely, helplessness coping strategies were inversely correlated with positive growth (ps < 0.05). Furthermore, multivariate analysis indicated that 61.2% of the positive growth score could be attributed to variables such as the stage of cancer, marital status, social support, problem-solving coping, and religious coping. The perceived availability of emotional support, particularly in the context of benefit finding, plays a crucial role in the patients' emotional adjustment. Conclusively, the findings suggest that enhancing social support, problem-solving, and religious coping could significantly improve the outcomes for Turkish women dealing with breast cancer. This research underscores the need for improvements in healthcare policies, support systems, and educational programs, proposing that such interventions should be integrated into healthcare services to effectively contribute to the positive growth of breast cancer patients.
Anahtar Kelimeler
positive growth, coping, social support, breast cancer, women
Kaynakça
- Acquati, C. (2016). A comparison of younger and older couples coping with breast cancer: examining the relationship among mutuality, dyadic coping, and quality of life of patients and partners. Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2392. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2392
- Affleck, G., & Tennen, H. (1996). Construing benefits from adversity: Adaptational significance and dispositional underpinnings. Journal of Personality, 64, 899-922.
- Affleck, G., Tennen, H., Croog, S., & Levine, S. (1987). Causal attribution, perceived benefits, and morbidity after a heart attack: an 8-year study. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55(1), 29.
- Aflakseir, A., Soltani, S., and Mollazadeh, J. (2018). Posttraumatic growth, meaningfulness, and social support in women with breast cancer. International Journal of Cancer Management. 11:e11469.
- Andrykowski, M.A., Cordova, M.J., Studts, J. L., & Miller, T. W. (1998). Posttraumatic stress disorder after treatment for breast cancer: Prevalence of diagnosis and use of the PTSD checklist-Civilian Version (PCLC-C) as a screening instrument. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 586-590.
- Antoni, M.H., Lehman, J. M., Kilbourn, K. M., Boyers, A. E., Culver, J. L., Alferi, S. M., et al. (2001). Cognitive behavioural stress management intervention decreases the prevalence of depression and enhances benefit finding among women under treatment for early-stage breast cancer. Health Psychology, 20, 203-207.
- Benson, R. B., Cobbold, B., Boamah, E. O., Akuoko, C. P., & Boateng, D. (2020). Challenges, Coping Strategies, and Social Support among Breast Cancer Patients in Ghana. Advances in Public Health, Article ID 4817932, 11 pages. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4817932
- Bellizi, K.M. (2004). Generativity and posttraumatic growth in adult cancer survivors. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 58, 247-267.
- Bellizzi, K.M., Blank, T.O. (2006) Predicting Posttraumatic Growth in Breast Cancer Survivors. Health Psychology Vol (25) pp 47-56.
- Carver, S., Antoni, M. (2004). Finding benefit in breast cancer during the year after diagnosis predicts better adjustment 5 to 8 years after diagnosis. Health Psychology, vol. 23, no.6, pp. 595-598.