Optimism and symptoms of anxiety and depression among Chinese women with breast cancer: the serial mediating effect of perceived social support and benefit finding

Abstract

Objective This research examines the direct and indirect relationships between optimism, perceived social support (PSS), benefit finding (BF), and anxiety and depressive symptoms among Chinese women with breast cancer (BC). Methods We recruited 512 patients, aged averagely 47.46(SD = 8.51) years from two hospitals located in Hunan province, China. The variables were assessed using the Optimism–Pessimism Scale (OPS), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Benefit Finding Scale (BFS), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Path analyses were conducted by Amos version 24.0 for Windows to test the hypothesized serial mediation model. Results Path analyses suggest a significant negative association between optimism and symptoms of anxiety and depression. The relationship was mediated by BF (β = -0.085, SE = 0.015, 95% CI [-0.126, -0.055]), and by BF together with PSS (β = -0.027, SE = 0.007, 95% CI [-0.047, -0.017]). The difference comparison between the two indirect effects was significant (β = 0.057, SE = 0.015, 95% CI [0.034,0.101]). Conclusions Our findings suggest that PSS, and BF are important mediators through which optimism may buffer symptoms of anxiety and depression among Chinese BC patients. Clinicians and healthcare practitioners should be aware of the importance of patients’ emotional health and endeavor to offer emotional support, facilitate their capacity to improve their quality of life.

A study of the mediating effect of social support on self-disclosure and demoralization in Chinese older adult homebound breast cancer patients

“…Based on assessing a large amount of research, it is shown that supportive relationships protect us from a multitude of mental health problems, but also that the absence of supportive relationships increases the risk of dying from various diseases ( Bai et al, 2020 ; Firouzbakht et al, 2020 ). The concern of family members and the comfort and support of friends and coworkers can help enhance the social belonging sense of the patient ( Ji et al, 2019 ; Mo et al, 2022 ). Wu and Lu (2017) 19 used data from the 2011–2012 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to discuss the impact of children’s informal care on the health behaviors of elderly people with chronic diseases through the propensity score matching method and found that children’s informal care can improve the health behaviors of the elderly and thus improve elderly health.…”