Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
Psychol Health. 2009 Oct;24(8):933-48. doi: 10.1080/08870440802254613.
Many studies have revealed that individual differences in coping responses to the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer are associated with psychological adjustment. The vast majority of these studies, however, focus exclusively on urban breast cancer survivors despite that rural breast cancer survivors are likely to have distinct experiences both in general and in relation to breast cancer. The current study quantitatively examined the coping strategies employed by both rural and urban breast cancer patients while they were undergoing radiation therapy. Further, the influence of these coping behaviours on concurrent as well as subsequent depressive symptoms (3 and 6 months later) was examined. The results revealed that the rurality of breast cancer patients was unrelated to the ways in which they coped, but did influence the relationships between some coping responses and depressive symptoms. Specifically, active coping and positive reinterpretation were negatively related to depressive symptoms for more rural breast cancer patients, but not their relatively urban counterparts. Similarly, behavioural disengagement was more strongly related to depressive symptoms for more rural patients. Possible reasons for this pattern of results and implications are discussed.
许多研究表明，个体对乳腺癌诊断和治疗的应对反应差异与心理适应有关。然而，这些研究绝大多数都只关注城市乳腺癌幸存者，尽管农村乳腺癌幸存者在一般情况下以及与乳腺癌相关的情况下可能有明显不同的经历。本研究定量研究了农村和城市乳腺癌患者在接受放射治疗时所采用的应对策略。此外，还研究了这些应对行为对同期和随后（3 个月和 6 个月后）抑郁症状的影响。研究结果表明，乳腺癌患者的居住地与他们的应对方式无关，但会影响某些应对反应与抑郁症状之间的关系。具体而言，对于更多的农村乳腺癌患者，积极应对和积极重新解释与抑郁症状呈负相关，但对其相对的城市患者则不是这样。同样，行为脱离与更多农村患者的抑郁症状的相关性更强。讨论了出现这种结果模式的可能原因和影响。
