Finding benefit in breast cancer: Relations with personality, coping, and concurrent well-being

Abstract

Cancer patients experience positive as well as adverse consequences from cancer diagnosis and treatment. The work reported here was part of an effort to characterize the experiences of benefit finding in breast cancer patients. A sample of 230 early-stage breast cancer patients completed a set of benefit finding items in the year post-surgery. This measure was then related to measures of concurrent coping, several aspects of psychosocial well-being, demographic variables, and several other personality traits. Benefit finding related positively to trait optimism, and to positive reframing and religious activity as coping reactions. Benefit finding related inversely to emotional distress, but was relatively unrelated to other measures of well-being.

Keywords:

• Quality of life
• breast cancer
• benefit finding

Acknowledgements

Data collection was supported by a research grant from the National Cancer Institute (CA64710) and a training grant from the Department of Defense (J4236-DAMD1794). Preparation of the manuscript was facilitated by an additional support from the National Cancer Institute (CA78995 and CA84944). We thank Drs. Robert P. Derhagopian and Silvio Garcia, the members of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Breast Health Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and the American Cancer Society of Dade County Florida, for their help in recruiting participants.

Notes

We also examined a measure of the investment in body image (Carver et al., 1998). This measure has been related to aspects of well-being in breast cancer patients, but there was less of a conceptual basis for expecting it to relate to benefit finding, and it did not.

Nodal involvement was tested both using number of nodes and a dichotomized (yes–no) index. In neither case was nodal involvement related to benefit finding.