Curvilinear associations between benefit finding and psychosocial adjustment to breast cancer.

Abstract

Two previously studied cohorts of women with nonmetastatic breast cancer (Ns ϭ 230 and 136) were reexamined. Participants were assessed during the year after surgery and 5-8 years later. Associations were examined between benefit finding (BF) and several indicators of psychosocial adjustment (e.g., perceived quality of life, positive affect, negative affect, social disruption, and intrusive thoughts). Significant curvilinear relations between BF and other outcomes were observed cross-sectionally during initial assessment and at long-term follow-up in both samples. Compared with the intermediate BF group, low and high BF groups had better psychosocial adjustment. Further analyses indicated that the high BF group reported higher optimism and more use of positive reframing and religious coping than the other BF groups. Discussion highlights the need to examine nonlinear as well as linear relationships.

Psychosocial Clinical Pathway of Breast Cancer in Portuguese Women: The Distress, Emotional Control, Neuroticism, Social Support, Coping, Quality of Life and Body Image Perception’s Changes over Time

“…Considering the psychosocial clinical pathway, we observed that the women in our sample faced breast cancer as a benefit finding event, as has been observed in several other studies [18,44,52,88,89,90], or as posttraumatic growth, which includes: better relationships with family and friends, sense of competence, changes in priorities, greater emotional strength, deeper spirituality and a desire live everyday fully [19,51,52].…”

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use and Benefit Finding Among Cancer Patients

“…This is a novel finding, given that many of the studies examining benefit finding to date have use samples largely comprised of white women. 14,28,29 The data available, although limited, supports differential benefit finding in racial populations. 20 In an evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral stress management program for men with prostate cancer, Penedo et al report that Black and Hispanic individuals endorsed higher preintervention levels of benefit finding, regardless of income or education, than white individuals.…”

Growth Following Trauma: Overview and Current Status

“…For example, curvilinear relationships between reported growth and adjustment have been reported in several cross-sectional studies (Kleim & Ehlers, 2009;Lechner, Carver, Antoni, Weaver, & Phillips, 2006), although another study (Tomich & Helgeson, 2012) found both linear and quadratic relationships in cross-sectional analyses but not in longitudinal analyses (i.e., only linear relationships were found in longitudinal analyses). These results also support…”