Mental Health Continuum of Cancer Patient's Caregivers: Resilience, Transformative Power of Suffering, and Hope

The aim of the study was to examine the predictive roles of socio-demographic variables (age, gender, caregiver relationship to the patient, and living arrangements), cancer-related variables (time passed since diagnosis, cancer stage), psychological factors (receiving psychological help after diagnosis, current need for support), resilience, transformative power of suffering, and hope on mental health continuum (MHC) of caregivers of cancer patients. The sample consisted of 119 caregivers (92 females and 27 males) of early-stage cancer patients diagnosed within the past five years without metastasis. Data were collected using the Demographic Information Form, Mental Health Continuum Scale-Short Form (MHCS-SF), Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), Transformative Power of Suffering Scale (TPSS), and Dispositional Hope Scale (DHS). Pearson Correlation, and Hierarchical Regression Analysis were conducted. The results indicated that being the spouse of the patient was a negative predictor of MHC (p < .05), while not reporting a need for psychological help and living separately from the patient were positive predictors (p < .05). Additionally, resilience, the transformative power of suffering, and hope significantly predicted MHC (p < .01). On the other hand, age, gender, caregiver role (child or parent), cancer stage, treatment duration, and whether the caregiver received psychological help, did not significantly predict MHC (p > .05).