Supporting the support person: Oncologists' roles in reducing support people's uncertainty and facilitating psychological adjustment.
Psychooncology
; 33(3): e6313, 2024 Mar.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38446532
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
Support people of cancer patients are at significant risk for psychological distress. Additionally, cancer patients' well-being is reciprocally associated with support peoples' psychological well-being. Informed by Uncertainty in Illness Theory, this study tests whether support person psychological well-being is influenced by provider communication and uncertainty reduction.METHODS:
We tested a multiple mediation model to investigate how empathic communication facilitates psychological adjustment in support people of cancer patients and how this process is mediated by support peoples' illness uncertainty and caregiver burden. Support people of cancer patients (N = 121; including spouses, adult children, etc.) completed an online questionnaire about their perceptions of oncologists' empathy, uncertainty about the cancer patients' illness, perceived caregiving burden, and their psychological adjustment to diagnoses.RESULTS:
Path analysis revealed that (1) more perceived oncologist empathy was associated with less illness uncertainty, (2) more illness uncertainty was associated with worse psychological adjustment and more perceived caregiver burden, and (3) more burden was associated with worse adjustment (χ2 (2) = 1.19, p = 0.55; RMSEA < 0.01; CFI = 1.00; SRMR = 0.02).CONCLUSIONS:
Given the reciprocal nature of well-being between cancer patients and their support people, it is critical to understand and bolster support people's psychological well-being. Results demonstrated how empathic provider communication can support psychological well-being for support people of cancer patients. Additionally, this study offers theoretical contributions to understandings of illness uncertainty in caregiver populations.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Oncologistas
/
Neoplasias
Limite:
Adult
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Psychooncology
Assunto da revista:
NEOPLASIAS
/
PSICOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos