The effects of Posttraumatic Growth on Well-Being and Moderating Roles of Time since Surgery, Stage of Disease and Personality Traits in Women with Breast Cancer
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Wang, Yi-Lin
Abstract
The Effects of Posttraumatic Growth on Well-Being and Moderating Roles of Time since Surgery, Stage of Disease and Personality Traits in Women with Breast Cancer
Yi-Lin Wang
Abstract
Posttraumatic growth (PTG) refers to the experiences of positive changes that result from struggling with a trauma or highly stressful event. However, among empirical studies, such positive experiences were hard to found a consistent association with well-being. Therefore, this research was aimed to investigate possible factors which may moderate or affect the relations of posttraumatic growth (PTG) to well-being in a sample of breast cancer (BC) women in Taiwan. It is hoped that the evidence from this research will further our understanding of the phenomenon of PTG more generally, and the association between PTG and well-being more particularly. Four hypotheses have been proposed. Firstly, stronger PTG would relate to greater well-being (e.g., higher life satisfaction, and lower PTSD symptoms and depression) when time since surgery is over 2 years. Secondly, PTG would associate with less well-being (e.g., lower life satisfaction, and higher PTSD symptoms and depression) for BC women with more severe disease stage. Thirdly, among extraverted women, PTG would correlate with higher well-being than introverts; in contrast, for women who have high neuroticism, PTG would associate with less well-being than those with low on neuroticism. Finally, women who perceived low or high level of PTG would report greater well-being than those with intermediate level of PTG, which implies a curvilinear association between PTG and well-being.
This is a cross-sectional research design. Total valid sample of BC women with surgery was 281, recruited from the Foundation of Breast Cancer Prevention and Treatment or National Taiwan University Hospital. Each participant was referred from a surgical physician, and after agreeing to take part in this study, they were then given a series of questionnaires.
According to the result of exploratory factor analysis for posttraumatic growth scale, PTG was analyzed not only as a total score, but also deconstructed into intra- and inter-personal growth. Results of the current study indicate that:
1. One moderating effect of time since surgery was found. It revealed that intrapersonal growth was associated with less PTSD symptoms only for women who had surgery within 2 years, but non-significantly for those with time since surgery over 2 years.
2. Stage of disease and Extraversion did not moderate the relationship between growth and well-being.
3. Neuroticism was found to be a possible moderator of the association between PTG and well-being. However, it was contradictory to expectation. Growth related more positively to life satisfaction for women with high level of neuroticism. Furthermore, PTG was correlated with less depression only for high neuroticism women, but non-significantly for those with moderate or low level of neuroticism.
4. Curvilinear relationship between PTG and well-being was partially supported. Women who perceived low or high level of PTG tended to report less PTSD symptoms and depression than those who had intermediate PTG, but such phenomenon was not observed in the association between PTG and life satisfaction.
The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to previous research, and suggestions for future research are further recommended.
Keywords: Posttraumatic growth, Well-being, Breast cancer, Time since surgery, Stage of disease, Extraversion, Neuroticism, Curvilinear relationship.
Subjects
Posttraumatic growth
Well-being
Breast cancer
Time since surgery
Stage of disease
Extraversion
Neuroticism
Curvilinear relationship
SDGs
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-99-R95227203-1.pdf
Size
23.53 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):a08ec2bdfdc3e4e78e7b3dc2d49657a1