Differences in resilience and psychosocial adjustment following a diagnosis of prostate or breast cancer — ASN Events
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  3. Differences in resilience and psychosocial adjustment following a diagnosis of prostate or breast cancer

Differences in resilience and psychosocial adjustment following a diagnosis of prostate or breast cancer (#915)

Sarah M. Worch 1 , Patricia I. Moreno 1
  1. University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States

Background 

A cancer diagnosis is a stressful experience that affects psychosocial adjustment and can increase distress (Singer, 2018). Resilience factors have been protective (Ruiz-Rodriguez et al., 2022), however very little is known about the impact of factors such as positive affect, meaning and purpose, and gratitude immediately following a cancer diagnosis. 

Aims

The purpose of this study is to examine differences in resilience factors between men with prostate cancer and women with breast cancer who were diagnosed within the past month.

Method

Participants were 36 adults diagnosed with prostate cancer (n = 19) or breast cancer (n=17) who completed a cross-sectional assessment at one-month post-biopsy. Independent samples t-tests were used to evaluate differences in well-validated measures of meaning and purpose, gratitude, empathy, positive affect, satisfaction with life, and relationship quality with spouse/co-habitating partner.

Results

Results demonstrate significant group differences in meaning and purpose, t(34) = .835, p =.048, with men with prostate cancer reporting higher levels of meaning and purpose (M = 17.58, SD = 2.22) than women with breast cancer (M = 15.53, SD = 3.68). Significant group differences were also found in overall relationship quality, t(32) = 3.152, p = .004, with men with prostate cancer reporting higher relationship quality (M = 114.29, SD = 9.17) than women with breast cancer (M = 97.00, SD = 20.68). There were no significant group differences in other resilience factors (all p’s > .05).

Conclusion

The results of the current study indicate that men with prostate cancer may experience higher levels of meaning and purpose and relationship quality than women with breast cancer in the month following their diagnosis. More research is needed to understand how these resilience factors impact psychosocial adjustment and whether they mitigate risk for heightened levels of distress. An important future direction is the use of longitudinal designs to examine how these relationships unfold across time and establish temporal precedence.

  1. Singer S. (2018). Psychosocial impact of cancer. In Psycho-Oncology, ed. U Goerling, A Mehnert, pp. 1–11. Cham, Switz.: Springer
  2. Ruiz-Rodriguez, I., Hombrados-Mendieta, I., Melguizo-Garin, A., & Martos-Mendez, M. J. (2022). The importance of social support, optimism and resilience on the quality of life of cancer patients. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 833176. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.833176
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