Benefit finding in adult cancer populations: psychometric properties and performance of existing instruments.

PURPOSE

To analyse the psychometric properties and performance of existing instruments that aim to measure benefit finding in adult cancer populations.

METHODS

Four electronic databases were searched. The focus was to identify English language, peer-reviewed journal articles where benefit finding is assessed with adult cancer populations. The terms 'benefit finding', 'cancer', 'instruments', 'scales', and 'adult' were used in various combinations. The instruments were rated against established criteria for instrument construction, reliability, validity, and interpretability.

RESULTS

Seventeen benefit finding instruments were reviewed. The instruments present a multifarious conceptualisation of the construct. Instrument structure is diverse. Several instruments (n = 4) reported on all the psychometric properties, but not interpretability. One instrument, the Stress-Related Growth Scale - Revised, additionally reported correlation statistics with another benefit finding instrument. Based on the information provided, the psychometric rigour of a number of instruments is yet to be established.

CONCLUSIONS

One instrument reported validation statistics for all the identified criteria. While existing instruments provide a range of operationalisations of the benefit finding concept and have been more or less used in previous research, a majority are in the early stages of development and require further validation work in adult cancer populations. Given the increasing interest in the role benefit finding in clinical practice, researchers are urged to use these instruments further and to report relevant validation statistics when using them.