Identity Processing Styles and Quality of Life in Head and Neck Cancer

A cancer diagnosis produces important disruptions in a person's life that can lead to a reconsideration of one's roles, values, purposes, and goals. This may threaten one's identity, which can be defined as an implicit self-theory construed using different identity processing styles (IPSs), categorised as informational, normative, and diffuse-avoidant. This study examined IPSs, commitment to identity, and their relationship to psychosocial outcomes in head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors. Sixty patients (age: M = 57.4, SD = 9.9) were recruited from an HNC outpatient clinic. Participants were at least 1 year posttreatment, on medical follow up, and free of recurrence. All participants completed questionnaires assessing IPS, quality of life (QoL), anxiety and depression, positive and negative perceptions of illness impact, and body image concerns. Correlational analyses showed that commitment to identity was significantly related to higher QoL, illness impact, and anxiety. A normative IPS was related to higher QoL. A diffuse-avoidant IPS was related to a negative perception of illness impact. A bootstrapped multiple regression analysis showed that only the normative IPS was a significant predictor of overall QoL. For this sample of HNC patients, a stronger commitment to normative goals, values, and beliefs contributed to the preservation of identity and to a greater sense of well-being during survivorship. Many forms of psychotherapy include a focus on various aspects of identity, some more directly than others. We discuss how such therapies may be applied to improve psychosocial outcomes in HNC patients.