The costs and benefits of various coping forms with cancer: self-efficacy and trauma symptoms

Abstract

For patients confronting a life-threatening illness such as advanced cancer religious coping as a coping form oriented on meaning can be an important factor influencing their self-efficacy and trauma symptom (e.g. depression, anxiety, self-image shift etc.) decrease. In this study, the relationship of religious and general coping forms and adjustment to cancer was studied in a coping model that included self-efficacy for coping. The participants in this study were 120 cancer patients (in I-IV stage). They completed measures of religious coping (RCOPE), general coping (COPE), trauma symptoms (TSI), and self-efficacy for coping (Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease, Lorig et al., 2001). Data analysis revealed that use of negative religious coping was better predicator for trauma symptoms (mainly, self-image shift (0.52, p<.01) and depression (0.50, p<.01)) than positive coping strategies, that were not significantly correlated with trauma and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy was negatively correlated with negative religious coping strategies and had significant relationship with depression and anxiety (-0.45, p<.01) in adjustment to cancer. Relationship between negative coping and depression was partially mediated by low self-efficacy (Sobel test 1.86, p<.06). Significant correlations between some forms of positive religious coping and problem-oriented coping strategies were found that indicated that religious coping was correlated with active strategies but not with passive forms of coping. The findings support previous researches (Philip, Merluzzi, Zhang et al., 2013) that targeting self-efficacy in the treatment of cancer related depression is a predictor of therapy outcome for cancer patients.