The Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer (Mini-MAC) scale: construct validation with a Greek sample of breast cancer patients

Abstract

This investigation is a Greek validation of the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer (Mini-MAC) scale, an instrument derived from the MAC and designed to measure styles of coping with cancer. A sample of 225 women diagnosed with breast cancer completed this questionnaire. Statistical analyses using structural equation modeling (SEM) confirmed Watson's original five first-order factors underlying Mini-MAC items: Helplessness/Hopelessness (HH), Anxious Preoccupation (AP), Fighting Spirit (FS), Avoidance (AV) and Fatalism (F). On a higher-order level, SEM and Multidimensional Scaling revealed two second-order factors: adaptive coping (being measured by FS, AV, and F) and maladaptive coping (being measured by HH and AP). Results are discussed in terms of the theoretical framework needed to account for the relationships among Mini-MAC factors and the refinement of the applications of SEM in the study of the mental adjustment to cancer construct.

Studying the Relation between Mental Adjustment to Cancer and Health-Related Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients

“…As was expected, this coping strategy has positive relation with HRQoL. This finding is consistent with those of Anagnostopoulos et al (23) and Rottmann et al (24). Patients with high fighting spirit see cancer diagnosis as a challenge and view the future optimistically, and believe that it is possible to control the disease (7).…”

“…There is no significant correlation between fighting spirit and the QoL in other studies. Because of the relation between fatalism and QOL, some studies showed that it was a negative relation (20,21), while others showed a positive relation (22,23) or no significant correlation (24).…”

Functional and psychological evaluation after flap reconstruction plus radiotherapy in oral cancer

“…Over time, however, avoidance becomes a detrimental strategy that distracts the patients from the seriousness of the problem. 63,64 The patients who use a fatalistic coping style feel that the diagnosis represents a relatively minor threat and that there is no control that can be exerted over the situation: the consequences of lack of control can and should be accepted with equanimity. This attitude, experienced sometimes in the course of the disease, may help patients to adapt, in a stoic sense, to cancerrelated life changes (''I've had a good life, what's left is a bonus'').…”

Self-efficacy, adjustment style and well-being in breast cancer patients: a longitudinal study

“…The Mini-MAC is also a well-known, validated tool [26][27][28], although its factor structure has been debated; several replication studies resulted in somewhat different structures [28,32,46], although others could replicate the original five-factor structure [27,47]. The difference in findings might be due, e.g., to cultural differences or the lack of comparability of the samples.…”