Psychosocial Adjustment Among Low-Income Latina Cervical Cancer Patients

Abstract

Cancer-related coping strategies and social support, life stress, and optimism were tested in regression analyses as predictors of depression, affect, and quality of life among 54 low-income, immigrant Latina cervical cancer patients. Sixty-seven percent of the patients endorsed symptoms similar to diagnosable depression. Predictors significantly accounted for 35% to 54% of the variance in outcomes. Cancer-related coping strategies were found to mediate several of the relations between life stress, social support, and optimism and outcomes. Findings emphasize the need to consider the context within which patients live when assessing adjustment to cancer and developing culturally-sensitive interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• cervical cancer
• Latinas
• coping
• life stress
• optimism
• depression

Acknowledgments

Pamela J. Stone is now at Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Notes

1. Given that only one patient emigrated from South America to the United States, we grouped this patient with patients from Central America to reflect a non-Mexican Latina subgroup.

2. The Spanish version of the Brief COPE provided by the measure's authors does not include the self-blame or use of instrumental support subscales, which were included in the English version.

3. One item from the Venting subscale (“I've been saying things to let my unpleasant feelings escape.”) was dropped because it reduced the reliability of the Avoidant Coping Scale and could be viewed as either an approach or an avoidant coping strategy.