Mediating role of coping styles in personal, environmental and event related factors and posttraumatic growth relationships in women with breast cancer

Object: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of environmental, personal and event related factors on posttraumatic growth in breast cancer patients. Methods: The study was conducted with 134 women who are undergoing chemotherapy treatment or coming to the hospital for their routine controls. Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale, The Impact of Event Scale, Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Ways of Coping Inventory, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, The General Self-Efficacy Scale-Turkish Form and Demographic Information Form was used. Results: Acoording to t-test analyses as the time passage from the diagnosis increases the perceived social support from the family members is increasing. Also while the group that had previous trauma experiences uses more helplessness coping styles, the group that had no previous trauma experience uses more problem focused coping style and showed greater posttraumatic growth. Results of the mediation analyses showed that problem focused coping has a mediator role in dyadic adjustment- posttraumatic growth; perceived social support from the family- posttraumatic growth; and self-efficacy- posttraumatic growth relationships. Discussion: The results of the current study are important in terms of developing new intervention programs that will help breast cancer patients to develop posttraumatic growth and also to better cope with cancer. This study is also important because the effect of marital adjustment and marital satisfaction on posttraumatic growth in breast cancer patients is an issue which is not well studied with Turkish sample.