Coping with Breast Cancer from the Perspectives of Husbands and Wives

Abstract

In a cross-sectional study, 36 breast cancer patients and Iheir husbands provided information about how each recalled coping with stress during a course of radiation Iherapy. Both spouses also were askcd lo repon on onc anou~er's coping efforts and to provide information about Lheir own current psychological adjustment and marital satisfaction. The results indicated that wives engaged in more extensive and varicd coping cflorts than their husbands did and h a t the coping strategies which husbands and wives used were largely independent. Consistent with numerous other studies, self-reported coping related to one's own outcomes. The authors also found significant crossover associations between the coping reports of one spouse and the other spouse's outcomes: husbands' outcomes were somewhat more stsongly corrclated with their wives' reporis of their own coping than vice versa. A similar pattern of lindings emerged for the coping data provided by one spouse about Ihc other. These data suggest that to understand more fully the link between cancer and psychosocial adjustment after Lreatment, researchers should consider the coping of spouses as well as patients.

Depression in husbands of breast cancer patients: relationships to coping and social support

“…Examples of items that participants endorsed included "avoid being with people in general," "refuse to believe it will happen," and "wish the situation would go away." This type of coping has been associated with poorer outcome in the cancer literature [36], specifically when examining husbands of patients [21,37].…”

Coping with head and neck cancer during different phases of treatment

“…Previous research with patients with other types of cancer similarly has found poorer adjustment among patients using avoidant coping strategies. [6][7][8][9][10][11]28 On balance, evidence from divergent samples suggests that coping through avoidance is maladaptive in response to a chronic stressor such as cancer. 29 Conclusions concerning emotion-focused coping are less clear.…”

“…Coping refers to cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage situations that are perceived as stressful. 5 Among patients with various types of malignancies, coping has been significantly associated with distress, [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] health-related quality of life, 13,14 and in some studies, immune activity 15 and survival. 16,17 In a number of investigations coping is a more robust predictor of quality of life outcomes than medical variables such as extent of disease or type of treatment.…”

Does talking about their relationship affect couples’ marital and psychological adjustment to lung cancer?

“…By virtue of their social roles, patients and partners may have very different perspectives on the cancer experience [12,37,38]. Talking provides an opportunity for spouses to fuse two independent perspectives into a connected sense of meaning [39,40].…”