Appearance investment, coping strategies, and psychosocial adjustment in male patients with head and neck cancer.

Background: This study examined the interrelationships among two facets of appearance investment (self-evaluative salience and motivational salience), appearance-related coping strategies, and psychosocial adjustment in male patients with head and neck cancer following physical appearance changes.Methods: It adopted a cross-sectional design; 136 male patients with stage I-III head and neck cancer were recruited. Self-reported scales were used to assess physical appearance changes due to cancer surgery and treatment, appearance investment, coping strategies, psychological distress, and disease-specific quality of life. Data were analyzed using path analysis.Results: Results showed that self-evaluative salience was directly and negatively associated with psychosocial adjustment, and motivational salience was indirectly and positively associated with psychosocial adjustment through coping strategies of less avoidance and greater positive rational acceptance.Discussion: This study also provides important information regarding the possible pathways of appearance investment and coping strategies in the psychosocial adjustment of male patients with head and neck cancer.

The effects of trait resilience and rumination on psychological adaptation to breast cancer.

This cross-sectional study examined the effect of trait resilience and specific types of rumination on positive psychological adaptation post-diagnosis among 201 breast cancer patients. They completed self-reported measures describing trait resilience, rumination, posttraumatic growth, and health-related quality of life. Hierarchical analysis showed that trait resilience significantly predicted higher quality of life and posttraumatic growth after controlling for demographic and clinical variables. Additionally, "intrusion" and "brooding" subtypes of rumination negatively predicted quality of life, with "instrumentality" positively predicting quality of life and posttraumatic growth, suggesting the importance of trait resilience and multidimensional rumination for positive psychological changes among breast cancer survivors.

Positive psychological changes after breast cancer diagnosis and treatment: The role of trait resilience and coping styles.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the relationships among trait resilience, coping styles, and perceived positive psychological changes in women's lives after breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.Design: The study adopted a cross-sectional design.Sample/Method: A total of 201 participants diagnosed with stage I-IV breast cancer were recruited. The average time since diagnosis was 39.14 months. Four rating scales were used to assess the participants' trait resilience, coping styles, perceived growth, and health-related quality of life. These are the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), the Mini-Mental Adaptation to Cancer Scale (Mini-MAC), the Chinese Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale-Breast (FACT-B).Findings: Hierarchical analysis showed that trait resilience significantly predicted high levels of perceived growth and health-related quality of life. This effect was moderated by Positive-Acceptance coping. The study also found that Negative-Affect coping had a direct effect on lowering health-related quality of life but had no influence on perceived growth.Conclusions: These findings highlight the facilitating effect of trait resilience and Positive-Acceptance coping on the psychological well-being and perceived growth among breast cancer outpatients.Implications: Trait resilience may be a protective, even facilitating factor of cancer adaptation. The knowledge that trait resilience offers a way to enhance wellness after cancer diagnosis and treatments may be useful in a clinical setting.

Mental adjustment at different phases in breast cancer trajectory: re-examination of factor structure of the Mini-MAC and its correlation with distress.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is twofold. First, it aims to determine the factor structure of the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer (Mini-MAC) Scale by using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to compare the three-factor, four-factor, and five-factor structures among 340 Taiwanese breast cancer patients. Second, it aims to test the difference in the correlations of coping strategies and the outcome measures between two populations: one-month newly diagnosed and five-year long-term survival patients. METHODS: Two samples, composed of 142 newly diagnosed and 198 long-term survival breast cancer patients, were recruited. Cancer-specific coping and distress were assessed via the Mini-MAC Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), respectively. RESULTS: The CFA confirmed Watson's original five-factor structure fit the data best. The correlation difference between the two samples lies in the fighting spirit (FS), which correlated negatively with distress among the newly diagnosed sample but had no correlation among the long-term survivors. Moreover, fatalism (FA) was found to correlate positively with distress. CONCLUSIONS: The five-factor structure represents a more psychometrically sound measure of psychological adjustment in the current data set. The findings also support the argument that the relationships between coping and distress vary, to some degree, at different phases in the cancer trajectory. FS is only a positive predictor of psychological adjustment among newly diagnosed patients. Because of the exclusion of two items, FA showed a positive correlation with distress, a result that contradicts previous findings. Further theoretical and practical implications for FS and FA are discussed.