TY - JOUR
T1 - Acceptance, social support, benefit-finding, and depression in women with gynecological cancer
AU - Manne, Sharon L.
AU - Kashy, Deborah A.
AU - Virtue, Shannon
AU - Criswell, Kevin R.
AU - Kissane, David W.
AU - Ozga, Melissa
AU - Heckman, Carolyn J.
AU - Stapleton, Jerod
AU - Rodriguez, Lorna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2018/11/1
Y1 - 2018/11/1
N2 - Purpose: Although studies have demonstrated a protective role for benefit finding in psychological distress, little is known about how benefit finding leads to lower psychological distress. This study’s goal was to use a multiple mediator model to evaluate whether the effect of benefit-finding on depression was mediated by acceptance of cancer, acceptance of emotions, and received social support. Methods: One hundred seventy-four women recently diagnosed with gynecological cancer completed measures of perceived benefits from the cancer experience, acceptance-based strategies, social support, and depression. Using a cross-sectional approach, we analyzed a multiple mediator model with benefit-finding as the independent variable, depressive symptom severity as the outcome, and acceptance-based strategies and social support as mediators. Results: Acceptance-based strategies and social support significantly mediated the relationship between benefit-finding and depression. Emotional acceptance had the strongest mediational effect, controlling for the other two mediators. Conclusions: Helping women diagnosed with gynecological cancers identify benefits from their cancer experience may reduce depression by paving the way for them to accept their emotional reactions, accept life changes associated with cancer, and facilitate supportive reactions from family and friends. Future longitudinal research is needed to confirm whether gynecological cancer patients who perceive more benefits will feel less depressed later.
AB - Purpose: Although studies have demonstrated a protective role for benefit finding in psychological distress, little is known about how benefit finding leads to lower psychological distress. This study’s goal was to use a multiple mediator model to evaluate whether the effect of benefit-finding on depression was mediated by acceptance of cancer, acceptance of emotions, and received social support. Methods: One hundred seventy-four women recently diagnosed with gynecological cancer completed measures of perceived benefits from the cancer experience, acceptance-based strategies, social support, and depression. Using a cross-sectional approach, we analyzed a multiple mediator model with benefit-finding as the independent variable, depressive symptom severity as the outcome, and acceptance-based strategies and social support as mediators. Results: Acceptance-based strategies and social support significantly mediated the relationship between benefit-finding and depression. Emotional acceptance had the strongest mediational effect, controlling for the other two mediators. Conclusions: Helping women diagnosed with gynecological cancers identify benefits from their cancer experience may reduce depression by paving the way for them to accept their emotional reactions, accept life changes associated with cancer, and facilitate supportive reactions from family and friends. Future longitudinal research is needed to confirm whether gynecological cancer patients who perceive more benefits will feel less depressed later.
KW - Acceptance
KW - Benefit-finding
KW - Cancer
KW - Depression
KW - Gynecological
KW - Social support
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85051800446&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11136-018-1953-x
DO - 10.1007/s11136-018-1953-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 30128785
AN - SCOPUS:85051800446
SN - 0962-9343
VL - 27
SP - 2991
EP - 3002
JO - Quality of Life Research
JF - Quality of Life Research
IS - 11
ER -