Prostate cancer and emotional functioning: Effects of mental adjustment, optimism, and appraisal

This study examined the interrelationships between mental adjustment to cancer (i.e., fighting spirit, helplessness, anxious preoccupation, and fatalism), optimism, appraisals (i.e., harm/loss, threat, and challenge), and emotional functioning (i.e., depression, anxiety, and self-esteem) in a small sample of men with prostate cancer. Various significant correlational findings were obtained, as hypothesized, and several of these results were supported further by conservative hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Specifically, these latter analyses revealed that increased helplessness was related to decreased self-esteem and that increased anxious preoccupation was related to increased depression. Loss appraisals were related to increased depression and threat appraisals were related to increased anxiety. Finally, optimism was negatively related to increases in both depression and anxiety. The findings are discussed within the framework of previous research and the relevance of psychosocial variables to the well-being of patients with prostate cancer.