| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 行為醫學研究所 === 94 === Purpose: Coping with breast cancer is a major challenge for patients and their family caregivers. In spite of caregiver’s difficulties, little is known about how they cope with the effects of cancer, and their quality of life. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect the adjustment of family caregivers of breast cancer patient and to examine what coping strategies and sources of perceived social support are related to higher quality of life.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed to determine the relationship between predictor variables (coping strategies, perceived social support) and their quality of life. The sample consisted of 54 family caregivers of women who had been diagnosed with stage 0-3 of breast cancer within the period of 18-month. The multiple standardized instruments with established reliability and validity were used to measure the study variables. The independent variables were measured with the Family Coping Behaviors Scale, the Social Support Scale. The dependent variable, psychosocial adjustment, was measured with the WHOQOL-BREF.
Results: Bivariate correlational analyses showed that problem-focused coping strategies and social support from family/friends were both significant positively relative to quality of life, whereas emotion-focused coping strategies had detrimental effects. Study variables accounted for a considerable amount of variance in family caregivers’ quality of life (38%~55%). In these factors, emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping accounted most variance in level of quality of life of family caregivers.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that coping strategies are very influential in family caregivers to deal with the effects of cancer, and the perceived adequacy of support from family members or friends is also important about their psychosocial adjustment. Programs need to include family members to help counteract the negative effects of the disease on their mental health, and enable them to continue as effective caregivers.
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