Exploring the relationship between posttraumatic growth, cognitive processing, psychological distress, and social constraints in a sample of breast cancer patients

Abstract

Posttraumatic growth (the perception of positive life changes after an encounter with a trauma) often occurs among breast cancer patients and can be influenced by certain demographic, medical, and psychosocial parameters. Social constraints on disclosure (the deprivation of the opportunity to express feelings and thoughts regarding the trauma) and the cognitive processing of the disease seem to be involved in the development of posttraumatic growth. Through the present study the authors aim to: investigate the levels of posttraumatic growth in a sample of 202 women with breast cancer in Greece, explore the relationships between posttraumatic growth and particular demographic, medical, and psychosocial variables according to a proposed model, and test the role of social constraints in the relationship between automatic and deliberate cognitive processing of the trauma. The results showed that posttraumatic growth was evident in the majority of the sample and was associated inversely with age at diagnosis (β = -0.174, p < .05) and psychological distress (β = -0.394, p = .001), directly with time since diagnosis (β = 0.181, p < .05), and indirectly with intrusions and psychological distress, through reflective rumination (β = 0.323, p = .001). Social constraints were found to moderate the relationship between intrusions and reflective rumination. Implications of the results and suggestions for future research and practice are outlined.

COVID-19 Related Stress and Mental Health Outcomes 1 Year After the Peak of the Pandemic Outbreak in China: the Mediating Effect of Resilience and Social Support

“…The current study also demonstrated that the COVID-19 related stress promoted Chinese people to develop post-traumatic growth. This result integrates well with the previous findings that indicate psychological distress and growth coexisted after facing adversity ( 54 – 56 ). Interestingly, post-traumatic growth was not correlated with depression and anxiety symptoms, indicating that the two types of changes were independent.…”

Emotional “Patient-Oriented” Support in Young Patients With I–II Stage Breast Cancer: Pilot Study

“…Generally, our findings, even if limited by this small-scale protocol, seemed to confirm the positive psychotherapy role after BC diagnosis and treatment through the impact of the cognitive processes, coping strategies, and psychological resilience (Kolokotroni et al, 2014; Parikh et al, 2015; Di Giacomo et al, 2015, 2016; Koutrouli et al, 2016; Mattei et al, 2017a,b). In fact, they are considered key factors in personal change, in dealing positively with, and overcoming, the cancer experience.…”

“…The authors highlighted the positive influence of the cognitive process and found that coping strategies are key factors for personal growth and for dealing positively with the cancer experience. Koutrouli et al (2016) demonstrated the influence of social constraints on disclosure (deprivation of the opportunity to express feelings and thoughts regarding the trauma). In addition, the authors noted that the related cognitive processing of one’s own disease condition seems to play an important role in the development of posttraumatic growth, becoming more significant for younger patients toward reducing intrusions and reflective rumination.…”

Post accidental injury: Mediating roles of emotional expressivity, rumination, and posttraumatic growth

“…People differ individually with regard to the extent to which they outwardly express their emotions, and these differences in emotional expressivity should also be considered while examining the role of emotional expressivity in intrusive rumination and PTG. The deprivation of the opportunity to express emotional feelings regarding the traumatic events was found to prevent the transition of intrusive rumination into deliberate rumination (Koutrouli et al, 2016). Several scholars have postulated valence‐specific (i.e., positive or negative) models of emotional expressivity, and have suggested that the expression of positive and negative emotions has different effects on cognitive processing and PTG (Morris et al, 2020; Strasshofer et al, 2018; Tian & Solomon, 2020).…”