Social relationship coping efficacy: A new construct in understanding social support and close personal relationships in persons with cancer (original) (raw)
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BMC Psychology, 2022
Background: Social relationship coping efficacy (SRCE) represents the ability to maintain or enhance social relationships in the context of serious illness. The purpose of the current study was to confirm the factor structure, psychometric properties, and utility of the Italian version of the SRCE scale. Methods: 181 breast cancer patients completed the SRCE-Italian (SRCE-I), the Cancer Behavior Inventory-Brief/Italian (CBI-B/I), quality of life (QOL) measures (EORTC QLQ-C30; EORTC QLQ-BR23), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: The SRCE-I was internally consistent (Cronbach alpha = .95) and factor analysis confirmed that the SRCE-I was a unidimensional construct. In terms of validity, the SRCE-I was correlated with QOL (EORTC QLQ-30, Social Functioning, r = .33, Emotional Functioning, r = .57, and Global Health/Quality of Life; r = .54) and scales of the EORTC QLQ-BR23 (e.g., Future Perspective, r = .38; Breast Symptoms, −.31). SRCE-I was also correlated negatively with the HADS (r = −.72) and positively with the CBI-B/I (r = .79), a measure of coping efficacy (all ps < .001). Mediation analyses confirmed the utility of the SRCE-I scale as a mediating mechanism in enhancing social functioning and QOL. Conclusions: The SRCE-I is a structurally sound, reliable, and valid measure that assesses the ability to maintain or enhance social support and mitigate the loss of social support. The SRCE-I can be used as a screening measure to assess low efficacy for maintaining social support or as a measure to detect the change in efficacy for enhancing social support in interventions to improve the QOL of patients.
Coping strategies and perceived social support among cancer patients: A cross-sectional analysis
Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology , 2021
Background: Cancer is a major public health problem worldwide. Being the second leading cause of death in the world, this fearsome disease is a stressful event capable to cause a time of considerable upheaval in people's lives and their loved ones. The illness condition can influence the patients' social relationships, even reducing social involvement and fostering isolation. Hence, cancer adjustment-related variables are worth studying. Specifically, the research on coping strategies is crucial since the patients' response style can act on the quality of the psychosocial outcomes. Objective: The aim of this study was deepening the association between coping styles and perceived social support from family, friends, and significant others among a sample of 121 cancer patients. Method: Participants were 121 cancer patients (70.2% females), aged 26 to 88 (M=61.90, SD=12.16). We assessed the adopted coping strategies by means of the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (mini-MAC Scale), whereas the perceived social support was measured by the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). Results: We found: (1) a positive association between fighting spirit and the perception of social support from friends; (2) the hopelessness/helplessness strategy seemed negatively related with the perception of social support, regardless of the source; (3) higher levels of fatalism were connected with higher levels of perceived social support from family; (4) both anxious preoccupation and avoidance did not show any association with perceived social support. Conclusions: Working on maladaptive coping responses might be useful for the purpose of improving the receptivity to the support from family, friends and significant others. Further research focusing on patients' coping styles is needed to promote holistic-oriented psychological treatments.
2022
Background: Social relationship coping efficacy (SRCE) represents the ability to maintain or enhance social relationships in the context of serious illness. The purpose of the current study was to confirm the factor structure, psychometric properties, and utility of the Italian version of the SRCE scale. Methods: 181 breast cancer patients completed the SRCE-Italian (SRCE-I), the Cancer Behavior Inventory–Brief/Italian (CBI-B/I), quality of life (QOL) measures (EORTC QLQ-C30; EORTC QLQ-BR23), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: The SRCE-I was internally consistent (Cronbach alpha=.95) and factor analysis confirmed that the SRCE-I was a unidimensional construct. In terms of validity, the SRCE-I was correlated with QOL (EORTC QLQ-30, Social Functioning, r=.323, Emotional Functioning, r=.562, and Global Health/Quality of Life; r=.546) and scales of the EORTC QLQ-BR23 (e.g., Future Perspective, r=.348; Breast Symptoms, -.331). SRCE-I was also correlated negati...
Importance of Social Support in Cancer Patients
Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 2012
Social support is regarded as a complex construct which has long been suggested to have direct and buffering effects on patients' wellbeing and emotional adjustment to cancer. Cross-sectional and prospective studies show a positive association between perceived social support and psychological adjustment following cancer treatment. Research findings suggest that the evidence for the relationship between social support and cancer progression is sufficiently strong. This report points out the importance of social support in cancer and provides recommendations for health care professionals.
Nursing Open, 2021
Currently, cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality around the globe (Siegel et al., 2019). The data obtained from investigation of 36 types of cancer in 185 countries in 2018 demonstrated that 18 million people were affected with cancer, of whom 8.2 million died (DeSantis et al., 2019). Fear of cancer recurrence, anxiety about its complications and concerns with returning to normal life are among the challenges of oncology patients (Soriano et al., 2019). There is extensive evidence on the importance of psychological care of oncology patients and their families (Sheikhzakaryaee et al., 2018). Studies have indicated that cancer diagnosis and treatment would lead to abundant somatic problems reduced life functions, familial disintegration (Henson et al., 2017), inefficient interpersonal relations, and disability in fulfilling social and familial responsibilities (O'Rourke & Lobchuk, 2018). Cancer affects many aspects of life and may lead to many temporary or permanent psychosocial problems. Therefore, integration of psychosocial
Health Psychology, 1996
Several research literatures are reviewed that address the associations of emotional, informational, and instrumental social support to psychological adjustment to cancer. Descriptive studies suggest that emotional support is most desired by patients, and correlational studies suggest that emotional support has the strongest associations with better adjustment. However, the evidence for the effectiveness of peer discussion groups aimed at providing emotional support is less than convincing. Moreover, educational groups aimed at providing informational support appear to be as effective as, if not more effective than, peer discussions. Reasons for inconsistencies between the correlational and intervention literatures are discussed, and future directions are outlined.
The Effect of Social Support Sources and Coping Strategies with the Quality of Life Cancer Caregiver
2019
Caregiver cancer often experience problems and obstacles that have a negative impact on the quality of life. Therefore, the caregiver needs social support and must be able to control his emotions by using the right coping strategies during stressful situations. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of social support sources and coping strategies on the quality of life of caregiver cancer. This study uses quantitative methods with a family caregiver research population that treats cancer patients both at home and in the hospital. The study sample was 153 caregiver cancer. The measuring instrument used in this study is WHO Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) to measure quality of life, The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) to measure social support and scale of ways of coping (WOC) to measure coping strategies. The data obtained were then analyzed using multiple regression analysis techniques.
2016
Background & Aim: Cancer is a significant and global health problem that negatively affects the functional status. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived social support, functional status and demographic characteristics in cancer patients. Methods & Materials : : This cross-sectional study was conducted with 243 patients with cancer, who met the research criteria and got treatment in the medical oncology clinic and chemotherapy unit in 2011. In the research, "Patient Information Form" was used to identify the socio-demographic and medical characteristics of the patients, "Functional Living Scale (FLS) - Cancer" was used to assess their functional statuses, and "Cancer Patients Social Support Scale" was used to assess their perceived social support. Data analysis was performed by descriptive statistics tests, One -Sample T Test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Pearson Correlation and regression test. The statistical significanc...
Attachment style and perceived social support as predictors of biopsychosocial adjustment to cancer
2014
Background/aim: Social support is associated with a decrease in psychological symptoms and a better quality of life in cancer patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of attachment dimensions on social and psychological adjustment to cancer and to explore the social and psychological adjustments, and medical adherence, among patients. Materials and methods: The study was conducted with 68 cancer patients, between 18 and 74 years of age. The measures taken were the Demographic Information Form, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), and Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS-SR). Results: The results showed that an avoidant attachment style was related to difficulties in social relationships and an increase in psychological distress following cancer diagnosis. People who perceive more social support orient to health care more easily than people who perceive less social availability. It was shown that a higher level of perceived social support has a positive impact in adjustment to family relationships and leads to experiencing less psychological distress than in people who perceived less social support. Conclusion: Considering the complicated nature of cancer, a multi-perspective approach should be applied during the treatment process, and it is important to determine the psychosocial factors, and the causal pathways by which they lead to a better adjustment, in developing effective interventions.
European Scientific Journal, 2012
During the last decades there is a trend in cancer treatment towards giving care at home settings. This trend presents the caregivers, mainly family members, with many difficult and complex tasks. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of perceived social support and coping strategies employed to the levels of anxiety and depression, as well as to the perception for the quality of life to cancer caregivers through a systematic literature review. Perceived social support results in fewer mental health symptoms, like anxiety and depression, and better quality of life, but this is not supported by all the studies. Likewise, some coping strategies, like active coping, have been also considered as important factors influencing quality of life and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Although there are many studies in the area of cancer, the majority of them have the patient in focus. There are few studies focused in the caregiving experience. In an Albanian setting, to the researchers' knowledge, there isn't any other study that targets caregivers.