Coping styles associated with psychological adjustment to advanced breast cancer

Author(s): Koopman, C., Angell, K., Spiegel, D.

Journal/Book: Health Psychol. 1996; 15: 750 First St NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Amer Psychological Assoc. 434-437.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine whether psychological adjustment to advanced breast cancer was positively associated with expressing emotion and adopting a fighting spirit and negatively associated with denial and fatalism. Total mood disturbance on the Profile of Mood States was used as the measure of psychological adjustment. The Courtauld Emotional Control Scale measured emotional expression, and the Mental Adjustment to Cancer measured fighting spirit denial, and fatalism. The sample included 101 women with a diagnosis of metastatic or recurrent breast cancer. Fighting spirit and emotional expressiveness were found to be associated with better adjustment. No association was found between mood disturbance and denial or fatalism. Because this was a cross-sectional study, no conclusions regarding a causal relationship between adjustment and emotional expressiveness or adjustment and fighting spirit were possible.

Note: Article Classen C, Stanford Univ, Sch Med, Dept Psychiat & Behav Sci, Stanford,CA 94305 USA

Keyword(s): breast cancer; coping; psychological adjustment; EMOTIONAL CONTROL; WOMEN; OPTIMISM

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