The Influence of Stress, Spousal Support, and Resilience on the Ways of Coping among Women with Breast Cancer

Jiyoung Kang; Eunyoung E. Suh

doi:10.5388/aon.2015.15.1.1

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Kang and Suh: The Influence of Stress, Spousal Support, and Resilience on the Ways of Coping among Women with Breast Cancer

Original Article

Asian Oncology Nursing 2015; 15(1): 1-8.

Published online: 31 March 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5388/aon.2015.15.1.1

The Influence of Stress, Spousal Support, and Resilience on the Ways of Coping among Women with Breast Cancer

Jiyoung Kang¹, Eunyoung E. Suh²

Graduate School of Nursing, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

College of Nursing, Research Institute of Nursing Science, Seoul National University , Seoul, Korea.

Address reprint requests to: Suh, Eunyoung E. Room 513, College of Nursing, Research Institute of Nursing Science, Seoul National University, 103 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-799, Korea. Tel: +82-2-740-8484, Fax: +82-2-740-8484, esuh@snu.ac.kr

Received 10 March 2015 Revised 25 March 2015 Accepted 27 March 2015

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of stress, spousal support, and resilience on the types of coping among women with breast cancer.

Method

Using a cross-sectional survey design, a total of 120 participants, diagnosed with breast cancer, had a mass removal surgery, and were fluent in Korean, were recruited at a cancer center in Seoul, Korea. Self-reported questionnaires of stress, spousal support, resilience, and ways of coping were administered upon the permission from the original developers. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 Win program.

Result

Ways of coping was positively correlated with spousal support, resilience, and stress. Positive correlations were found between problem-focused coping, spousal support, and resilience. Positive correlations were found between emotion-focused coping with stress and resilience. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that spousal support had significant moderating effect on the relationship between stress and emotion-focused coping.

Conclusion

Women perceived their diagnosis and surgery as more stressful, they more like to use emotion-focused coping. Women with more spousal support and resilience were found to use problem-focused coping more. Based on the findings of this study, a tailored intervention for women with breast cancer for improving their coping is expected in future research.

Keywords: Breast Cancer, Stress, Spousal Support, Resilience, Coping

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Moderation Model: Spousal Support Moderates the Relationship between Stress and Emotion-focused Coping.

Fig. 2

Moderation Effect among Stress, Spousal Support, and Emotion-focused Coping.

Table 1

Demographic Characteristics and Disease Characteristics (N=120)

Characteristics	Classification	M±SD	Range	n (%)
Age (year)	<40	50.0±7.4	32~71	6 (5.0)
	40~49			55 (45.8)
	50~59			45 (37.5)
	≥60			14 (11.7)
Spousal age (year)	<40	53.1±7.9	35~74	3 (2.6)
	40~49			40 (33.3)
	50~59			55 (45.8)
	≥60			22 (18.3)
Marital status	Married			113 (94.2)
Marital status	Couple not legally married			7 (5.8)
Number of children	0~1		0~5	28 (23.3)
	2			78 (65.0)
	≥3			14 (11.7)
Education	≤Middle school graduate			23 (19.2)
	High school graduate			51 (42.5)
	≥College graduate			46 (38.3)
Employment status	Employed			30 (25.0)
	Housewife			84 (70.0)
	Others			6 (5.0)
Religion	Christian			41 (34.1)
	Catholic			21 (17.5)
	Buddhist			32 (26.7)
	None			20 (16.7)
	Others			6 (5.0)
Combined income^* (10,000 won)	<200	431.2±244.5	100~1,200	16 (13.3)
	200~400			54 (45.0)
	400~600			15 (12.5)
	≥600			15 (12.5)
	Missing			20 (16.7)
Cancer stage	Stage 0		0~3	11 (9.1)
	Stage 1			41 (34.2)
	Stage 2			51 (42.5)
	Stage 3			17 (14.2)
Type of surgery	Modified radical mastectomy			29 (24.2)
Type of surgery	Breast conserving surgery^†			91 (75.8)
Tumor site	Right			65 (54.2)
Tumor site	Left			55 (45.8)
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy	Yes			24 (20.0)
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy	No			96 (80.0)

^*Combined income of patients and spouses; ^†It includes quadrantectomy, lumpectomy, and wide local excision.

Table 2

Descriptive Statistics for Outcome Variables (N=120)

Variables	Cronbach's α	Possible range	Reported range	Total score	Items score
Variables	Cronbach's α	Possible range	Reported range	M ± SD	M ± SD
Stress	.93	36~180	46~144	99.93±20.20	2.78±1.04
Spousal support	.97	18~90	19~90	65.96±15.22	3.67±1.07
Resilience	.94	25~175	34~167	126.08 ± 22.38	5.04 ± 1.41
Factor I	.93	17~119	23~115	87.26 ± 16.25	5.13 ± 1.40
Factor II	.77	8~56	11~52	38.82 ± 7.11	4.85 ± 1.44
Coping	.87	0~108	26~98	63.74 ± 12.38	1.77 ± 0.82
PFC	.83	0~63	18~60	40.28 ± 8.05	1.92 ± 0.79
EFC	.73	0~45	8~39	23.45 ± 5.88	1.56 ± 0.85

Factor I=Personal Competence; Factor II=Acceptance of Self and Life; PFC=Problem-focused Coping; EFC=Emotion-focused Coping.

Table 3

Correlations among Stress, Spousal Support, Resilience and Ways of Coping

Variables	Stress	Spousal support	Resilience	Ways of coping	PFC	EFC
Variables	r	r	r	r	r	r
Stress	1	- .05	- .17	.21^*	.14	.25^†
Spousal support		1	.28^†	.30^†	.35^†	.16
Resilience			1	.48^†	.48^†	.36^†

^*p<.05, ^†p<.01 (2~tailed); PFC=Problem-focused Coping; EFC=Emotion-focused Coping.

Notes

This article is a condensed form of the first author's master's thesis from Seoul National University.

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