Cognitive-Behavioral Coping, Illness Perception, and Family Adaptability in Oncological Patients with a Family History of Cancer

Abstract

Aim. The study investigated the differences between patients with and without a family history of cancer regarding coping strategies, illness perception, and family adaptability to the disease. Material and Methods. A total of 124 patients diagnosed with cancer were included in the research (55 of them with a family history of cancer). The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale, and the Illness Perception Questionnaire were applied. The data were processed using the SPSS 21 software. Results. Patients with previous records of cancer in the family get significantly higher scores for the illness coherence factor. Family satisfaction is significantly higher for patients with a genetic risk, compared to the one reported by patients who suffer from the disease but have no genetic risk. Cognitive-behavioral coping strategies and family cohesion are factors that correlate with an adaptive perception of the illness in the case of patients with a family history of cancer. Conclusion. Results are important for the construction of strategies used for patients with a family history of cancer.

Illness perceptions of Chinese women with breast cancer and relationships with socio‐demographic and clinical characteristics

“…High scores on the timeline acute/chronic, timeline cyclical, consequences, and emotional representation subscales indicate that respondents have strongly held beliefs about the chronicity, the cyclical nature, the negative consequences of the illness, and the psychological causes of the illness. High scores on the personal control, treatment control, and illness coherence subscales represent the respondents' positive beliefs about the controllability of the illness and a personal understanding of the condition (Postolica et al, ).…”

“…Furthermore, illness perceptions can be related to patients' sociodemographic and clinical characteristics (Hopman & Rijken, 2015;Postolica et al, 2017;Yan et al, 2011). Women with higher levels of education are more likely to believe that the duration of the illness will be short and that the illness will be controllable (Anagnostopoulos & Spanea, 2005;Kritpracha, 2004), while those with lower education levels have less personal control and illness coherence and higher emotional representation (Gosse, 2007;Kayaniyil et al, 2009).…”

“…Women who are married are more likely to believe that the illness will result in less serious consequences and to exhibit higher personal control (McCorry et al, 2013). Family history and illness severity have also been explored as factors that can influence illness perceptions (Postolica et al, 2017;Yan et al, 2011).…”

Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the revised illness perception questionnaire for breast cancer-related lymphedema

“…The Common Sense Model of Self‐Regulation (CSM) proposes that patients’ coping behaviours, such as adherence, are guided by their illness perception (Moon, Moss‐Morris, Hunter, & Hughes, ). According to the CSM, when faced with illness, individuals always construct a perception of their condition which is structured around nine dimensions (Moon et al., ): (a) identity: the symptoms the patients associates with the illness (Postolica, Iorga, Petrariu, & Azoicai, ), (b) timeline acute/chronic, (c) timeline cyclical: the perceived time frame of disease development and duration (e.g., acute, chronic or cyclical) (Richardson, Schuz, Sanderson, Scott, & Schuz, ), (d) consequences: beliefs about what effect the illness may have on the patient's life (Richardson et al., ), (e) personal control: internal control perception about the disease (Richardson et al., ), (f) treatment control: beliefs about the effectiveness of administered treatment (Keskin et al., ), (g) illness coherence: the degree to which an individual feels she understands the illness (Bassi et al., ), (h) emotional representation: the degree to which an individual links negative emotions to the illness (Bassi et al., ), and (i) cause: personal ideas about aetiology (Postolica et al., ).…”

“…(e) personal control: internal control perception about the disease (Richardson et al, 2017), (f) treatment control: beliefs about the effectiveness of administered treatment (Keskin et al, 2017), (g) illness coherence: the degree to which an individual feels she understands the illness (Bassi et al, 2016), (h) emotional representation: the degree to which an individual links negative emotions to the illness (Bassi et al, 2016), and (i) cause: personal ideas about aetiology (Postolica et al, 2017).…”